Stella Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
872450912
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Solana Beach, CA, USA
Rating
60
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Human Service Organizations

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$642,761
Expenses
$593,012
Assets
$98,620
Liabilities
$683

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

7 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • FLOSSIE HALL (CEO)
  • SILVIA MAH (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • FLOSSIE HALL (CEO): $118,214 total reported compensation
  • KARA SMITH (COO): $43,341 total reported compensation
  • JACI SANDER (CFO): $7,862 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Stellas mission is to inspire, equip, and propel diverse female founders to successfully launch, grow, and sustain their businesses while cultivating a thriving network of investors to increase equality for women-led startups.

What it reported doing in 2024

Community- our community of over 5,000 people who believe in equality for fmale founders. In 2020, we began building a tech-enablement to our services in order to reach people all over the world. Our digital community is free of charge and provides access to pre-recorded video courses, one-onone advisory sessions, group sessions, mentorship matching, and features on setllas media. The digital stella community provides master classes in seven core areas with 59 modules with pre and post-assessment to track knowledge and behavior changes, masterclasses are available for both entrepreneurs and investors. Join our stell community to view all of our courses and events.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 70% 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 available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 45
  • Transparency & Controls: 100
  • Accountability: 44
  • Sustainability: 38
  • Growth: 20

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 48.7%; rating input score 49
  • Program expense ratio: 52.8%; rating input score 53
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

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: 66.7%; rating input score 67; 14th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 1 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 11
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 7.7%; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.17; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 28.6%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -20.3% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -4.1% per year; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 70.7% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 48.7% of revenue deployed · 52.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 4 of 6 board members independent · 1 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 7 filed program accomplishments · $313K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $118K · 7 people listed
  • Consistency: 23 of 23 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2022 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 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: Mission deployment rate scored 49/100.
  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 7 of 8 not reported.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 53/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 8/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 57/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 8/100.