The Champion Project
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 811566770
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2022–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2020, Form 990-N 2016
- Location
- The Woodlands, TX, USA
- Phone
- 8327253265
- Rating
- 87
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Alliance/Advocacy
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $313,921
- Expenses
- $377,258
- Assets
- $297,560
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- ELIZABETH W CHAPPELL (President)
- AUDRA SIMPSON (Vice President)
People named in this filing
- ELIZABETH W CHAPPELL (President)
- NIKKI YORK (Treasurer)
- SHAUNA JOUBERT (Director)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The Champion Project serves youth in foster care who live in 24-hour staffed group homes and residential treatment centers throughout the greater Houston area.
What it reported doing in 2025
Mentoring ProgramTCP partners with churches and faith-based communities to provide trauma-informed group mentoring for youth living in congregate care. Volunteer mentor teams build consistent relationships through regular gatherings, shared meals, activities, church participation, and ongoing encouragement. Our goal is to provide youth with dependable adults who show up, build trust, and walk alongside them through their time in foster care.Fostering Success TutoringTCP provides individualized academic tutoring designed to help youth strengthen their skills in reading, language arts, and math. Tutors work consistently with students to address academic gaps, build confidence, and help each student progress toward grade-level achievement.Book Bus & LiteracyThe TCP Book Bus brings books, literacy resources, activities, and caring volunteers directly to group homes and emergency shelters. Youth are able to select books to keep while participating in activities and building positive relationships with volunteers. The program uses literacy as a way to encourage learning while creating opportunities for connection and joy.Special Events & EnrichmentTCP provides youth with experiences that extend beyond mentoring and academics, including seasonal celebrations, career exploration, sports and recreational activities, summer programming, back-to-school support, and other special opportunities. These experiences allow youth to build positive memories, explore new interests, develop life skills, and envision possibilities for their future.Through these programs, The Champion Project works to ensure that youth in foster care have access to something every child deserves: caring adults who show up, opportunities to learn and grow, and a community that believes in their future.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 97% 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
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 expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 88
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 88
- Sustainability: 32
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 84.4%; rating input score 84
- Fundraising efficiency: $9.28 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 5 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 71
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- 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: -20.2%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.79; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 41.1% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 32.6% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 29.9% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 84.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 5 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $318K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 10 people listed
- Consistency: 19 of 19 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- 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 36/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 11/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 35/100.