Stray Cat Alliance

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
954787231
IRS 990 coverage
2014–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Phone
3102836235
Rating
81
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Animal Protection and Welfare

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$3,917,165
Expenses
$4,038,531
Assets
$1,165,491
Liabilities
$578,552

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

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • CHRISTIENNE METROPOLE (PRESIDENT & CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • CAMRIN CHRISTENSEN (CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER): $138,749 total reported compensation
  • CHRISTIENNE METROPOLE (PRESIDENT & CEO): $116,775 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Our mission is to educate and empower communities to advocate for every cat's right to be safe, healthy and valued. We are proud to be celebrating 25 years of life saving work.our 2024 successes included: - keeping 376 underage kittens out of shelters and "safe at home" - managing the placement of 1,274 cats into loving foster homes - adopting 1,118 cats into their fur-ever homes - providing spay/neuter surgeries for 1,790 cats, including 793 community cats - providing 113,497 meals to community cats via our feeder partners - helping an additional 23,251 cats and 5,557 humans through our hotlinewe accomplish our work through our four primary programs; adoptions, safe at home, return to home for community cats, and care for community cats.

What it reported doing in 2024

Adoptions: our adoptions program provides foster and forever homes to cats and kittens that are pulled from los angeles animal service shelters. We focus on the most in-need cats - those who are sick, injured, or underage - and are at risk of being euthanized. We pull more of these cats from the six los angeles animal services shelters than any other organization. We also accept cats and kittens from caring community members from underserved communities where resources are limited or unavailable. This helps ensure that these cats and kittens never end up at municipal shelters. Once they enter our programs, each cat/kitten receives veterinary care, including spay/neuter, vaccines, testing, check-ups, and microchips in our full service clinic. Our adoption counselors interview and provide resources to potential new family members to ensure that each cat gets matched with a loving, supportive forever home.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 93% 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.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

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: 79
  • Transparency & Controls: 87
  • Accountability: 84
  • Sustainability: 22
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 85.7%; rating input score 86
  • Program expense ratio: 83.2%; rating input score 83
  • Fundraising efficiency: $7.99 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 94.1%; rating input score 94; 23rd 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: 87.5%; rating input score 88; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Fail
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -3.1%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.29; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.5; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 6.3%; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 10.8% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 9.3% per year; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 14.9% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 85.7% of revenue deployed · 83.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 8 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $3.4M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $139K · 9 people listed
  • Consistency: 29 of 30 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 9 filing years from 2014 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 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: Fundraising efficiency scored 30/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 9 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 24/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 9/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 21/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 45/100.