The Doctor Yum Project
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 455245719
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2021–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2020, Form 990-N 2015
- Location
- Fredericksburg, VA, USA
- Phone
- 2024306766
- Rating
- 72
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Nutrition
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $342,738
- Expenses
- $203,645
- Assets
- $268,987
- Liabilities
- $16,751
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
6 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Nimali E fernando MD MPH (President and Treasurer)
People named in this filing
- Nimali E fernando MD MPH (President and Treasurer)
- Heidi Dieugenio (Secretary)
- Santhi Nair MD (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 Dr. Yum Project builds feeding skills early — when habits and preferences are still forming — and creates ripple effects across families and communities.
What it reported doing in 2025
Developing curricula for schools, like our research-based program "dr. Yum's food adventure" to help children and their families learn to cook and eat fresh fruits and vegetables. This includes educating teachers on how to support healthy eating in classrooms and supporting specialists who help children with feeding challenges eat a more nutritious diet.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 76% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 99% 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 - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of total spending goes to programs. 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: 64
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 60
- Sustainability: 66
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 51%; rating input score 51
- Program expense ratio: 85.9%; rating input score 86
- Fundraising efficiency: $23.21 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 59; 59th 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: 83.3%; rating input score 83; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 2 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 29
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- 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: 40.6%; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.32; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.06; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -3.5% per year; rating input score 0; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 7.3% per year; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 14.6% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 5 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 51% of revenue deployed · 85.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 5 of 6 board members independent · 2 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $175K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 6 people listed
- Consistency: 24 of 24 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2021 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.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 51/100.
- High — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 6 not reported.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 59/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 48/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 26/100.