Sprout City Farms
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 352415295
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2016–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2015
- Location
- Denver, CO, USA
- Phone
- (720) 239-2714
- Rating
- 83
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Food Programs
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $929,981
- Expenses
- $1,044,668
- Assets
- $549,140
- Liabilities
- $41,560
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
7 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- MONDI MASON (PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- MEG CALEY (EXECUTIVE DI): $102,325 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Sprout City Farms is an urban agriculture nonprofit organization based in Denver, CO, started by a group of farmers, researchers, teachers, business leaders, and community members that came together in 2010 with a vision for increasing food access and community resiliency through farming underutilized urban land.
What it reported doing in 2024
Community and thought leadership: build reciprocal, inclusive relationships that support community engagement and community-centered food systems. - increase community outreach to build strong partnerships that support scf work and the community. - scf has participated in and advised various urban agriculture activities including Colorado state university's building urban farmers class, front range beginning farmers conference, Colorado fruit and vegetable growers association conference, mile high farmers and the annual producers summit, rocky mountain farmers union, national young farmers coalition, southwest food coalition, denver sustainable food policy council, jefferson county food policy council, and other conferences and events.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 68% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- 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: 78
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 24
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 87.9%; rating input score 88
- Program expense ratio: 78.3%; rating input score 78
- Fundraising efficiency: $6.66 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 25; 25th 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; 63rd 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: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -12.3%; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.53; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.08; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 9.8%; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 26.6% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 20.5% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 26.6% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 9 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 2 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 87.9% of revenue deployed · 78.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $818K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $102K · 7 people listed
- Consistency: 29 of 29 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 8 filing years from 2016 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 25/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 15/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 24/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 37/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 46/100.