The Cloud Foundation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 201740623
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Colorado Springs, CO, USA
- Phone
- 7196333842
- Rating
- 75
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Wildlife Preservation, Protection
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $336,342
- Expenses
- $370,611
- Assets
- $546,515
- Liabilities
- $2,742
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
12 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- VIRGINIA KATHRENS (PRESIDENT)
- LISA FRIDAY (VICE PRESIDENT)
- KERRY FERGUSON (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- KERRY FERGUSON (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $71,444 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 cloud foundation is dedicated to preventing the extinction of cloud's herd through education, media events and programming, and public involvement. We are also determined to protect other wild horse herds on public lands, especially isolated herds with unique characteristics and historical significance.
What it reported doing in 2024
The cloud foundation founder, ginger kathrens, is regularly invited to speak at national and international meetings and conferences advocating the preservation of wild horses and burros. The foundation has been featured on abc, nbc, cnn, and pbs, educating a national audience about the need to preserve wild horses and burros. Tcf attends the bureau of land management (blm) national meetings regarding the management of wild horses and burros. Kathrens and other tcf board members give public comment on the need to reform the management of wild horses and burros both on the range and in captivity. Tcf comments on all environmental assessments, which deal with the planned removal of wild horses and burros from public lands. Tcf director kathrens writes articles for national and international publications on the issue. Tcf speaks at schools, creates educational materials, and produces educational videos and still presentations regarding wild horses and burros. Tcf collaborates with other organizations to promote the protection of wild horses and burros.since its inception (2005) tcf has directly rescued dozens of mustangs that were bound for dirt holding areas managed by the government or were on their way to killer buyer auctions. The foundation has facilitated the adoption and purchase of dozens of other once wild horses. Tcf has provided training or retraining of once adopted wild horses that were subsequently rescued either directly or indirectly by tcf. Tcf maintains two family bands of wild horses on privately owned, leased pastures in Montana. These "freedom family" wild horses live much like they did on the pryor mountains. Tcf provides scheduled visits to see the freedom families for purposes of photography and education about the behavior and complex social interactions of wild horses.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% 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 fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 72
- Transparency & Controls: 86
- Accountability: 69
- Sustainability: 34
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 78%; rating input score 78
- Program expense ratio: 71.8%; rating input score 72
- Fundraising efficiency: $10.39 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 25th 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: 2 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 25
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -10.2%; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.47; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 19.3%; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 5% per year; rating input score 100; 54th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 7% per year; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 15.2% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 78% of revenue deployed · 71.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 2 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $266K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $71K · 12 people listed
- Consistency: 29 of 30 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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.
- High — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 7 not reported.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 40/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 22/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 51/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 20/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 50/100.