Touching Heart

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
270777365
IRS 990 coverage
2015–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2009
Location
Herndon, VA, USA
Phone
7039017355
Rating
80
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Gift Distribution

Reported finances

Revenue
$48,745
Expenses
$53,950
Assets
$325,151
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Helen Shin Yi (Co-Founder and Executive Director and Chair)

Highest reported compensation

  • Helen Shin Yi (Co-Founder and Executive Director and Chair): $3,250 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Our mission is to teach children the joy of giving and to build the next generation of compassionate leaders. Through our after school programs, workshops, summer camps, and events, Touching Heart creates hands-on opportunities for children to actively experience the great joy that comes from helping others. Since 2010 our programs have impacted over 24,000 children. The end result is that our children have helped over 6,000 individuals over the years, and continue to do so.

What it reported doing in 2025

Kids On A Mission (KOAM) - Touching Heart coaches work with a leadership team of 3-5 children to select a cause, then plan and implement an event to raise funds to bring about positive change in the lives of children in need. Touching Heart partners with carefully selected local causes that benefit local children and international orphanages. Using a child-led, project-based learning curriculum developed by Touching Heart, these young leaders learn practical life and business skills including goal-setting, marketing, budgeting, public speaking and project management. They experience the joy of working as a team together to help others in need, and most of them can't wait to do it again! Children in our programs see the impact of their efforts through photographs, letters, conference calls and video. Touching Heart believes that children seeing the actual results of their giving actions is critical to inspiring children to continue to give. Examples of Kids on a Mission events include a fashion show, Minecraft tournament, basketball and soccer tournaments, a princess tea party and a art gallery sale. Since 2010, over 5,000 kids led or participated in Kids on a Mission events, benefitting over 14,000 children locally and internationally from the funds raised from the events. The children help organize the Backpack distributions, Fun Day and the Holiday Party.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
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

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 program spending has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 88
  • Transparency & Controls: 83
  • Accountability: 84
  • Sustainability: 45
  • Growth: 20

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 96.3%; rating input score 96
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • 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: -10.7%; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 6.03; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 6%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -10.6% per year; rating input score 0; 26th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -10.7% per year; rating input score 0; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 4.7% per year; rating input score 100; 61st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 96.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $52K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $3K · 8 people listed
  • Consistency: 19 of 20 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 11 filing years from 2015 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 41/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 55/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 13/100.