The Rapides Foundation

What it reported doing in 2024

Education -- during 2024, the rapides foundation provided $1.5 million in grants to the nine public school districts in trf's service area. The grants were used for targeted professional development, coaching and mentoring of teachers; leadership development for administrators; and funding to allow the districts to participate in institutes provided by the orchard foundation. 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. In the 2023-2024 academic year, the orchard foundation continued to administer school readiness institutes for central Louisiana pre-k, head start and childcare providers that participate in the state of Louisiana's early childhood community networks. The networks seek to expand access to high quality, publicly funded early childhood education programs. In the school year 2023-2024, orchard administered 11 trainings reaching 134 educators and providers. To expand coaching capacity in the region, orchard provides opportunities for individuals to become certified as making the most of classroom interactions (mmci) / class group

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
• Program expense ratio: 81.8%; rating input score 82
• Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 10th 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Limited
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 93.8%; rating input score 94; 27th 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: -21.3%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 29.18; rating input score 98; 98th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 85; 85th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 10.3%; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 3.8% per year; rating input score 100; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: -5% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 3.8% per year; rating input score 100; 28th percentile among comparable filings