Underground Ministries

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
611850476
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2019
Location
Mount Vernon, WA, USA
Phone
3604203962
Rating
80
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Rehabilitation Services for Offenders

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,173,270
Expenses
$854,410
Assets
$1,501,896
Liabilities
$1,024,446

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

6 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • JONATHAN WELDON (PRESIDENT)

People named in this filing

  • SALLY CARLSON (VICE PRESIDE)
  • JAYME HAYNES (TREASURER)
  • BECCA NIEMEYER (BOARD MEMBER)

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

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Underground ministries opens new relationships of embrace and trust between gang-affected prisioners and the communities to which they return, for our mutual transformation and resurrection.

What it reported doing in 2024

Additional programs not listed previously: 2) one parish one prisoner: this program takes our local reentry practices and mobilizes churches to practice them with just one person released from prison into their community, over two years. Our opop director of operations expanded our program from 20 "parish teams" to 40 this year. And we completed a significant video interview series to enrich all 24 monthly learning modules with a variety of personal testimonials from our participants. Part of our state contracts contributed to staffing to expand parish recruitment in church networks and build our platform in conference circuits. 3) movement building: our mission to cast vision beyond just our two programs, while also investing in our database and back-end communications, invested in a new backend software for recurring donations, donor, and volunteer tracking, integrated with our newsletters communications. Our newsletter and social media will now deploy more of our original video material, in tandem, both resourcing the wider network out there while inspiring more donors to give and invest in our work.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 71% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
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 liabilities are high compared with assets.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 76
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 70
  • Sustainability: 67
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 65.7%; rating input score 66
  • Program expense ratio: 88.4%; rating input score 88
  • Fundraising efficiency: $115.96 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 88; 88th 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: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 2 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 29
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 27.2%; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.76; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.68; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 38.7% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 33.2% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 53.9% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 65.7% of revenue deployed · 88.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 2 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $755K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 6 people listed
  • Consistency: 23 of 23 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 to 2024
  • 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.

  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 6 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 11/100.