The Lost and Found Association

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
454306370
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2019, Form 990-N 2018
Location
Sioux Falls, SD, USA
Phone
6059402341
Rating
81
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Hot Line, Crisis Intervention Services

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,306,746
Expenses
$1,494,553
Assets
$181,084
Liabilities
$188,522

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

12 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • JERRY COOK (PRESIDENT)
  • ERIK MUCKEY END 525 (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
  • CARRIE JORGENSEN START 525 (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • ERIK MUCKEY END 525 (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $106,892 total reported compensation
  • CARRIE JORGENSEN START 525 (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $82,552 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Lost&found delivers comprehensive, data-driven, and resilience-focused suicide prevention and postvention programs and services for youth and young adults (ages 10-34) and their support networks.

What it reported doing in 2024

Lost&found student & campus programs increased its impact through South Dakota and Minnesota services, providing campus chapters, peer2peer mentorship, l&f advocates, and campus resilience index services to 12 colleges and universities. These programs served more than 1000 students, while also providing guidance to five campuses. The leading student program, peer2peer mentorship, helped 98% of program participants achieve personal goals and more than 85% of program participants increase personal resilience. 95% of students engaged in lost&found programs were satisfied with the experience. To support the growth of this program, lost&found engaged in the development of the reachu mobile application to enable more effective program support.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 80% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 77% for direct work, and 23% for grants.

The verdict

STRONG - 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: 84
  • Transparency & Controls: 94
  • Accountability: 69
  • Sustainability: 12
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 93.3%; rating input score 93
  • Program expense ratio: 81.5%; rating input score 81
  • Fundraising efficiency: $13.85 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 99.6%; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
    • 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: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -14.4%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.12; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 1.04; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 12.7%; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 34.2% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 32.1% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 21.4% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 93.3% of revenue deployed · 81.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 10 of 11 board members independent · 3 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $1.2M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $107K · 12 people listed
  • Consistency: 35 of 35 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 4 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 2 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.

  • Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 7 not reported.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 48/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 13/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 6/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 5/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 29/100.