Spiritual Paths Foundation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 161648198
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2016–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2011, Form 990-EZ 2024, Form 990-N 2015
- Location
- Santa Barbara, CA, USA
- Phone
- 9706189424
- Rating
- 95
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Interfaith Coalitions
- Affiliation
- Interfaith
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $124,642
- Expenses
- $195,865
- Assets
- $57,060
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Ed Bastian (President)
People named in this filing
- Ed Bastian (President)
- Catherine Wyler (Secretary)
- Ed France (Treasurer)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The Spiritual Paths Foundation is dedicated to helping people of all ages and backgrounds to create inner calm through a personal spiritual path, a contemplative practice, and compassionate wisdom for serving themselves, their communities, and the Earth’s natural environment. The Spiritual Paths Institute provides holistic, contemplative resources and a supportive community that honors individual curiosity and promotes the freedom to create personal paths of meaning and purpose. Purpose The Purpose of the Spiritual Paths Institute is to provide holistic, contemplative, and educational courses and resources to support people in their spiritual or existential exploration. The Purpose of the Spiritual Paths Institute is to provide holistic, contemplative, and educational courses and resources to support people in their spiritual or existential exploration. Values The Spiritual Paths...
What it reported doing in 2024
Held workshops, gave lectures & created a film to inform and elevate our understanding of spirituality and the world's spiritual traditions
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 94% 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. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 97
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 25
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 92.9%; rating input score 93
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -57.1%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.29; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 26.6% per year; rating input score 100; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 3.9% per year; rating input score 100; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 17.5% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: Mission, programs, and operating context captured from the official website.
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 92.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $182K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 8 filing years from 2016 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- 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.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 2/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 25/100.