The Gardens of Southeastern North Carolina Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 842077394
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2023–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2022
- Location
- Willard, NC, USA
- Phone
- 9102794446
- Rating
- 75
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Botanical, Horticultural, and Landscape Services
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $361,887
- Expenses
- $373,096
- Assets
- $110,717
- Liabilities
- $33,825
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
15 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- David Johnson (President & Treasurer)
- Chason Johnson (Vice-President)
Highest reported compensation
- David Johnson (President & Treasurer): $104,000 total reported compensation
- Chason Johnson (Vice-President): $99,957 total reported compensation
- Jill Johnson (Board Member): $60,236 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 improve lives and nurture creativity through the wonders of nature. Spanning over 300 acres of land, our aspiration is to establish ourselves as a premier destination for plant and nature enthusiasts, eventgoers, families, and people of all ages.
What it reported doing in 2024
The Gardens has continued to grow and maintain a stunning garden for visitors to explore and be inspired by. It has become a trial garden where we test and learn what plants work the best in our area. This benefit is educational for visitors and informative. Several events that The Gardens hosted in 2024 involved walking through The Gardens where we would show visitors favorite plants and share tips on how to grow specific varieties, and more. The biggest event that The Gardens hosted in 2024 was The Southern Lights, a Christmas holiday light show. We hosted over 7,000 people excluding children under 5. It appeared that each guest genuinely had a great time through the offerings of lights, food, drinks, fire pits, a wagon ride, a scavenger hunt, a snowball arena, and more! The Southern Lights continues to be a family friendly event where memories and traditions are made. A new event for The Gardens in 2024 was hosting The Garden Gala in partnership with The Carolina Strawberry Festival. This was an upscale event where people dressed in their garden attire and spent the day admiring the flowers and dancing to beach music. The Gardens once again hosted Grain to Oven and was able to show people firsthand how wheat is made. Guests left with a new appreciation of food through learning how to harvest their own wheat and transform it into flour to make pizza dough. The foundation of The Gardens continues to be inspiring people through education, events, and its gardens. The Gardens has become an inviting place for the community and a land of exploration for people to be in nature and become in awe of its beauty.
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 - 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 a relatively small share of voting board members are independent.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 86
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 38
- Sustainability: 22
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 91.9%; rating input score 92
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
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: 50%; rating input score 50; 16th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 2 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 22
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -3.1%; rating input score 32; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.3; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.31; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: Limited
Growth
- Program expense growth: 61% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 24.1% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -7.4% per year; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 91.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 5 of 10 board members independent · 2 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $343K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $104K · 15 people listed
- Consistency: 23 of 23 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 2 filing years from 2023 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- Related organizations: 6 filed related-organization links
- 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: 7 of 9 not reported.
- Review — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 50/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 32/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 16/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 16/100.