The Cedars Camps Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
440663883
IRS 990 coverage
2019–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Ballwin, MO, USA
Phone
6363946162
Rating
77
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Affiliation
Christianity

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$5,652,590
Expenses
$4,159,673
Assets
$34,207,338
Liabilities
$41,407

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

Leadership & pay

13 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • DR HOLLY BRULAND (TRUSTEE & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • DR HOLLY BRULAND (TRUSTEE & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $130,950 total reported compensation
  • WARREN HUFF (TRUSTEE & EXECUTIVE DIR EMERIT): $52,500 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

To give each camper an appreciation of spiritual sense and an abundance of wholesome, joyous activities. We provide summer camp activities for Christian Scientists promoting character building, outdoor education, and spiritual growth as well as teamwork and individual interests. These activities include Bible lesson study, horseback riding, Starvish swimming classes, crafts, archery, canoeing, nature study, sports, ropes courses, zipline, musical theater, waterskiing, cable skiing and family camp. We strive to be able to make camp possible to anyone that needs financial aid. During summer 2025 56% of the campers needed financial aid totaling $655,101.

What it reported doing in 2024

Cedars Camps has 9 weeks of summer camp activities (June-August) on 1000 acres of land near Lebanon, MO for Christian Scientists. In addition, there are several long weekend programs for adults or other organizations off season. Cedars Camps has 1 and 2 week camping sessions with a total of 410 individual campers and 1046 camper weeks. 132 people attended one week of Family Camp; 115 attended a Memorial Day Weekend Family Camp; 425 people from 3 other organizations came for 3 to 4 days in the fall and spring; 24 campers attended a virtual Cedars program; and 230 people attended a Bible study virtually. Cedars has small class and activity groups with a camper to counselor ratio of 3 to 1. Activities at Cedars include Bible lesson study; horseback riding; Starfish swimming classes; crafts; nature study; sports; ropes courses; zipline; climbing wall; musical theater; kayaking; paddle boarding; log rolling; cable skiing; water skiing; archery. Cedars has specialty programs in soccer; volleyball; horseback riding; waterskiing; aerial arts, as well as having many of these activities available to all campers as a choice of activities. We have a herd of 45 horses that we maintain year round. This includes growing hay and buying grain to feed the horses; maintaining tack; farrier and vet bills; and training the staff through camp-based clinics through the CHA. Trips go to Supe Splash USA, Silver Dollar City, Pomme de Terre where we have our ski school boats and canoe float trips on nearby rivers. Cedars has a Bible Lands Park for further Bible exploration, which is opened in the off season to other denominational church groups.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 77% 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 - 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 some filed totals do not add up.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 75
  • Transparency & Controls: 85
  • Accountability: 63
  • Sustainability: 82
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 65%; rating input score 65
  • Program expense ratio: 85.2%; rating input score 85
  • Fundraising efficiency: $436.86 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 95; 95th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 5th 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: 84.6%; rating input score 85; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 3 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 26.4%; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 8.22; rating input score 89; 89th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 92; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 4.4%; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 13% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 3.1% per year; rating input score 100; 28th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 9.4% per year; rating input score 100; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 65% of revenue deployed · 85.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 11 of 13 board members independent · 3 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $3.5M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $131K · 13 people listed
  • Consistency: 22 of 23 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2019 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 8 not reported.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 58/100.