The Orchard Foundation

What it reported doing in 2024

The orchard foundation's work in college and career readiness encompasses three areas the cenla work ready network, college and career coaching for high school students, and jump start programs to expose cenla educators and students to career opportunities in the central Louisiana region. The cenla work ready network is a system designed to link education with workforce development efforts and align them with regional economic needs. During 2024, all public high schools in the foundation's service area, central Louisiana technical community college campuses, and regional business and career solutions centers accessed act's workkeys curriculum, a career training course that prepares students for certification with workkeys assessments. Workkeys is a job skills assessment system measuring real world skills that employers believe are critical to job success. Workkeys assesses three core areas: applied mathematics; workplace documents; and graphic literacy; which determines a student's national career readiness certificate (ncrc) level, an objective documentation of an employee's skills that can be accepted nationwide. During the 2023-2024 school year, 4,146 students participated in act's workkeys curriculum training, and 5,040 national career readiness certificates were earned by cenla residents. In 2024, the orchard foundation continued its partnership with the Louisiana central, central Louisiana's regional economic development organization, to assist employers in utilizing workkeys and the ncrc in their hiring processes. All nine parishes in the orchard foundation service area are act certified work ready communities: allen, avoyelles, catahoula, grant, lasalle, natchitoches, rapides, vernon, and winn. During the 2023-2024 school year, the orchard foundation partnered with career compass of la to work with area school districts to provide college and career coaching services in all high schools and middle schools in the service region. A total of 4,870 students were seen in grades 8 through 12 by college and career coaches. Career seminars were attended by another 21,463 students in grades 6 through 12. 95.38% of the seniors counseled applied to a postsecondary program. The workplace experience exchange (wee) camps give teachers the opportunity to engage in business and industry activities to learn how classroom content and learning strategies are applied in the workplace. Three separate wee camps were held in summer 2024: wee camp i, wee camp ii, and wee camp elementary. A total of 57 teachers participated in the camps and completed a small group activity on the final day that included a presentation of a career lesson plan.orchard held its annual students exploring career opportunities expo (seco) in late fall 2024. Seco is a two-day event that introduces 10th graders to career possibilities. A total of 2,306 students participated. 66 volunteers assisted and 70 exhibits were available for students to engage with industry partners.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
• Program expense ratio: 90.6%; rating input score 91
• Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
  • Compensation committee: Missing
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
  • Written employment contract: Missing
  • Compensation survey or study: Pass
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 80%; rating input score 80; 18th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: -302.7%; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.08; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.11; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 9.1%; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 9.2% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 6.3% per year; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 14.2% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings