Starfish Ministries
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 934395120
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2024–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Ball, LA, USA
- Phone
- 5049135029
- Rating
- 72
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Children's, Youth Services
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $132,907
- Expenses
- $135,040
- Assets
- $50,809
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Jessica Lachney (Executive Director)
Highest reported compensation
- Jessica Lachney (Executive Director): $2,000 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Starfish Ministries of Cenla Inc. is dedicated to empowering at-risk youth single parents and individuals in the foster care system in Central Louisiana. The organization works to provide emergency foster care support transitional living assistance and comprehensive community resources so that vulnerable individuals can move from crisis toward stability and self-sufficiency.
What it reported doing in 2025
Starfish Ministries offers vital assistance to foster children and families by organizing temporary shelter options and linking foster families with essential resources like food hygiene and medical aid. Collaborations with local agencies guarantee that these youths get the necessary support to move towards more secure living arrangements. Revenue: Mainly derived from donations and grants rather than direct income.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 75
- Transparency & Controls: 68
- Accountability: 79
- Sustainability: 34
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 85.4%; rating input score 85
- Program expense ratio: 84.1%; rating input score 84
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 75%; rating input score 75; 0th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- 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: -1.6%; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.38; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 1.5%; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 72.8% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 11% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -4.1% per year; rating input score 0; 11th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 85.4% of revenue deployed · 84.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $114K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $2K · 5 people listed
- Consistency: 34 of 42 current checks pass · 8 findings to review
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 2 filing years from 2024 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 31/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 20/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Functional expense sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part IX Advertising column sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part IX FeesForServicesAccounting column sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part IX FeesForServicesManagement column sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part IX FeesForServicesProfFundraising column sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part IX GrantsToDomesticIndividuals column sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Schedule G fundraiser detail did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 34/100.