Sparrow Ministries Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
833356410
IRS 990 coverage
2021–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2022
Location
Lutherville, MD, USA
Phone
4109213955
Rating
64
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Christianity
Affiliation
Christianity

Reported finances

Revenue
$183,086
Expenses
$218,780
Assets
$119,223
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Virginia C Becker (Co-Executive Director)
  • Erich Becker (Co-Executive Director)

Highest reported compensation

  • Virginia C Becker (Co-Executive Director): $91,071 total reported compensation
  • Erich Becker (Co-Executive Director): $85,879 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Sparrow Ministries Mission: To prepare couples to begin well and coach couples gently through the unfolding, ongoing adventure story of their marriage. Sparrow Ministries objective is to support engaged couples in preparation for a life spent together and support married couples through the life stages of their marriage. This will be accomplished by offering workshops for large groups, small group meetings of 5-6 couples over a short term of 4-8 weeks, coaching individual couples on an as needed basis, and training leaders in local churches via speaking engagements.

What it reported doing in 2025

Sparrow Ministries also offers Coaching for couples who have attended either a premarital workshop or a marriage workshop. Coaching is also offered for couples and individuals who have immediate needs and who have not attended a workshop. After a premarital workshop, Premarital Coaching is couple to couple coaching to complement the workshop where couples are encouraged to process the information from the workshop and personalize the help and support they may need to take the next step toward marriage. After a marriage workshop, Marriage Coaching can help a couple better understand the workshop material relative to their personal story as well as work to resolve rough patches in their marriage. In addition to the coaching that results from a workshop, a couple may contact Sparrow Ministries to meet with a coach who can help them through and beyond the rough patches in marriage, when having another couple to talk to, share with, and pray with is really all you need. In 2025, there were 64 appointments for premarital coaching, where either one or both members of the couple attended. There were also 244 appointments for marriage coaching, where either one or both members of the married couple attended. Each appointment required 2 hours of planning and praying as well as 1.5 hours of actual coaching time. A total of 2,508.50 hours were required for these coaching appointments.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 90% 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

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 55
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 55
  • Sustainability: 22
  • Growth: 40

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 64.9%; rating input score 65
  • Program expense ratio: 54.3%; rating input score 54
  • Fundraising efficiency: $2.55 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th 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: 40%; rating input score 40; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -19.5%; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.54; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 80.9%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -0.6% per year; rating input score 0; 26th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 3.5% per year; rating input score 100; 39th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -0.8% per year; rating input score 0; 19th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 64.9% of revenue deployed · 54.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 2 of 5 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $119K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $91K · 5 people listed
  • Consistency: 39 of 39 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2021 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 6 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • 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 — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 40/100.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 54/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 11/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 12/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 26/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 1/100.