South Texas Alliance for Orphans

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
822119250
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2019
Location
Boerne, TX, USA
Phone
2102166223
Rating
83
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Affiliation
Christianity

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$789,176
Expenses
$704,702
Assets
$673,945
Liabilities
$0

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

6 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • MELODY MCCREA (President)

Highest reported compensation

  • JENNIFER SMITH (Executive Dir.): $89,583 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The organization exists to serve and equip churches in fulfilling the biblical call to care for children and families impacted by the foster care system.

What it reported doing in 2025

Community engagement: we trained 18 parents through our navigating school supports special education class, our apn program trained 196 volunteers to respond to families with trauma and our dga program trained 121 individuals on youth who have aged out of foster care. Our babysitting collaborative trained 18 babysitters. We were able to support 806 caseworkers with monthly meals, supplies, and encouragement through church adoption of caseworker units. At events this past year we served 682 kids at our kinmart event, 1034 kids, 327 families at our jinglemart event. Our centered dads retreat served 33 foster/adoptive/kinship dads and 22 foster/adoptive couples at our renew marriage retreat.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 80% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 72
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 54
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 72.5%; rating input score 72
  • Program expense ratio: 80.4%; rating input score 80
  • Fundraising efficiency: $14.75 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 10.7%; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.96; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 12.7%; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 25.6% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 23.1% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 23.9% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 72.5% of revenue deployed · 80.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $567K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $90K · 6 people listed
  • Consistency: 27 of 27 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 47/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 58/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 42/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 30/100.