The Starfish Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
391847399
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2022–2025
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2019
Location
Milwaukee, WI, USA
Phone
4144162237
Rating
61
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Arts, Culture, and Humanities N.E.C.

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$86,332
Expenses
$56,022
Assets
$185,359
Liabilities
$60,185

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • RHEANNA SMITH (VICE PRESIDENT)
  • ROB FROST (PRESIDENT)

People named in this filing

  • SHEADY KYLE (AT LARGE)
  • LAURA NITSCHKE (AT LARGE)
  • MARY MUSE (AT LARGE)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Provide retreats for emotional healing of trauma survivors.

What it reported doing in 2025

The starfish foundation, inc. Received a grant for $15,000, from the kubly foundation to provide certified peer specialist training designed to train individuals with lived experience of mental health or substance use challenges. 22 participants attended and received certification of the training. The cost to the starfish foundation, inc. To provide this training was $13,359, of which the unexpended funds associated with providing the training services was returned to the kubly foundation.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 97% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 53% for direct work, and 47% for grants.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and program spending has grown recently. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 40
  • Transparency & Controls: 82
  • Sustainability: 69
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 34.3%; rating input score 34
  • Program expense ratio: 51.1%; rating input score 51

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Limited

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 35.1%; rating input score 83; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.31; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.32; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 33.3% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 17.9% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 24.3% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 34.3% of revenue deployed · 51.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 2 filed program accomplishments · $29K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 8 people listed
  • Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 2 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • 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 34/100.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 51/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 10/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.