The Wellspring Foundation for Education

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
980439803
IRS 990 coverage
2013–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Langley, BC, CA
Phone
6043712705
Rating
66
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
International Relief

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,138,006
Expenses
$1,228,867
Assets
$642,985
Liabilities
$4,183

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

Leadership & pay

14 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • LIBBY KARANGWA-MILES (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • LIBBY KARANGWA-MILES (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $99,520 total reported compensation
  • LOUISE LOTEN (DIRECTOR OF GRANTS & PROGRAM QUALITY): $80,580 total reported compensation
  • BARBARA LUCK (DIRECTOR OF FINANCE): $50,171 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

To 1) empower a generation of leaders and transform lives in rwanda and beyond by developing and supporting schools, teachers, and students, and 2) foster vibrant communities that address poverty in all its forms.

What it reported doing in 2025

Wellspring foundation for education has a vision to see compassionate, creative, and courageous young people empowered to shape a vibrant, peaceful future through an education that nurtures character, intellect and wellbeing.to date, wellspring's programs have directly invested in 261 schools across rwanda by training 406 school leaders, 6606 teachers, 793 parent leaders, 204 family coaches, and 52 government education leaders all in support of 267,959 students. In 2025, our core program, "turere abana" ("we nurture children"), supported 55 school communities across five districts.healthy families - 204 family advisors trained to support 1700 vulnerable families create healthier family relationships that nurture children's learning and development - resulting in 1287 students who had dropped out of school to return to classroom learning with support from home.healthy schools - 120 teachers trained to deliver a weekly resilience program to 4000 students and to incorporate social-emotional learning into classroom environments; 68 school leaders equipped to create safer positive school cultures of belonging and to train teachers in social-emotional learning. Healthy systems - collaborated with the rwandan education board to improve education systems through social-emotional learning (sel), sel teacher training resources and advocacy initiatives to support sel and resilience learning across rwandan schools. In addition, wellspring facilitates education-sector learning and advocacy as part of the rwanda NGO coordination platform (rencp) and supports broad-based cross-sector community development through network of international ngos (ningo). Wellspring continues to provide advisory support for its flagship school, the wellspring academy, in kigali, as well as a small network of christian schools in rwanda.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 96% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
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 most voting board members are independent. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and the filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 73
  • Transparency & Controls: 55
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 23
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 83.7%; rating input score 84
  • Program expense ratio: 72.6%; rating input score 73
  • Fundraising efficiency: $5.26 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 17; 17th 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: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Grant itemization coverage: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • 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: -8%; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.52; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 22.6%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -0.8% per year; rating input score 0; 13th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -0.6% per year; rating input score 0; 10th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -6% per year; rating input score 0; 5th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 83.7% of revenue deployed · 72.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $893K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $100K · 14 people listed
  • Consistency: 31 of 31 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and foreign activity
  • Filing history: 13 filing years from 2013 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 4 filed money-flow records
  • 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.

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
  • High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 0/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 17/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 15/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 25/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Document-retention policy not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 13/100.
  • High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.