The Farm Collaborative
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 263468420
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2016–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2015, Form 990-T 2023, Form 990-N 2009
- Location
- Woody Creek, CO, USA
- Phone
- 9703792323
- Rating
- 77
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Adult, Continuing Education
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $2,668,217
- Expenses
- $1,168,935
- Assets
- $7,070,636
- Liabilities
- $139,200
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
19 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Eden Vardy (Executive Director)
- Christina Person (Vice President)
- Jeff Davlyn (President)
Highest reported compensation
- Eden Vardy (Executive Director): $131,250 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Growing a local food system where the health of people and planet come first
What it reported doing in 2024
Summer Camp Programs. Research demonstrates that growing food is one of the most powerful ways to reconnect children to nature and to get people outside. The flagship summer program, Earth Keepers, saw capacity attendance in the reporting year with 330 participants for six hours/day, five days per week for 10 weeks. Programs were sold out 10 out of 10 weeks. We reached over 2,000 student days this summer.Farmer In Training: After piloting new tween/teen programs in 2023, we launched our new Farmer In Training (FIT) program (for ages 13-17) summer of 2024 to provide agricultural education and training. Through this program the participants learned to plant and harvest, learned to properly wash and pack the produce for the farmer's market, and learned how to set up and maintain an irrigation system. In addition to these skills, they have learned how to work on a team. The success of this program is evident in the skills and confidence gained by participants, setting them on a path towards success in agriculture and skills that will serve them in their future careers. Four participants were accepted as paid participants and two accepted on a volunteer exchange agreement.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- 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 - 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: 60
- Transparency & Controls: 86
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 82
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 41%; rating input score 41
- Program expense ratio: 86.6%; rating input score 87
- Fundraising efficiency: $47.09 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 13th 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: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- 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: 56.2%; rating input score 94; 94th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 6.05; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 11.2%; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 24.3% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 23.1% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 29.2% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 41% of revenue deployed · 86.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 18 of 18 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $131K · 19 people listed
- Consistency: 26 of 27 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 8 filing years from 2016 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.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 41/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 26/100.