The Black Soil Charitable Fund Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
991184271
IRS 990 coverage
2024–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2023, Form 990-N 2022
Location
Lexington, KY, USA
Phone
8597851800
Rating
67
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Food Programs

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,510,808
Expenses
$870,604
Assets
$675,275
Liabilities
$34,571

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

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • ASHLEY SMITH (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • ASHLEY SMITH (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $36,333 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

The mission of black soil ky is to reconnect black kentuckians to their heritage and legacy in agriculture. By bringing together urban families with rural and urban-based black farmers/growers/producers across the state, we help introduce opportunities in agriculture that promote self-sufficiency, encourage healthy living, and activate cooperative economics.our vision is to help foster a greater market share for black farmers and producers as they provide healthy food options to a larger consumer base. Black soil ky organizes farm tours, farm-to-table dinners, catering opportunities, events, workshops, training, education & outreach, and more for Kentucky black farmers, chefs, and makers.

What it reported doing in 2024

In fy 2025, the black soil charitable fund, inc worked to continue its mission to reconnect black kentuckians to their heritage and legacy in agriculture. By bringing together urban families with rural and urban-based black farmers/growers/producers across the state, we help introduce opportunities in agriculture that promote self sufficiency, encourage healthy living, and activate cooperative economics.in fy 2025, we successfully executed leases for two brick and mortar 'neighborhood farmacy markets' at 820 lane allen road, suite 176 and 760 florence avenue in lexington, ky. These stores help achieve our mission by creating new economic opportunities and larger markets for our partner farmers, and through grant funding, we are able to provide these goods to the community at lower costs than major retailers. Through this, we are able to enact our 'eat local year round' initiative to have our community members supporting and eating local in every season. In addition, we received our sprout mobile market food truck, which travels to locations to provide farm fresh goods to communities either for purchase or through free distributions. While the farmacy markets provide a stable, stationary location for the community to eat and support local, sprout helps to go where fresh food is needed, helping bring commodities to communities without access to transportation.these two arms of our operations have drastically increased the success of our mission, allowing us to feed more families across our community and across the state while assisting our farmers in supporting and expanding their operations.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 96% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 58% for direct work, and 42% for affiliated organizations.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. 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: 48
  • Transparency & Controls: 85
  • Accountability: 79
  • Sustainability: 65
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 38.3%; rating input score 38
  • Program expense ratio: 66.5%; rating input score 66
  • Fundraising efficiency: $10.75 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 8th 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: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • 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: 42.4%; rating input score 90; 90th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.78; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 4.2%; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: 183.4% per year; rating input score 100; 100th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 199.7% per year; rating input score 100; 100th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 38.3% of revenue deployed · 66.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $579K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $36K · 5 people listed
  • Consistency: 29 of 30 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 38/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 40/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 35/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 52/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 55/100.