Utah Cold Case Coalition

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
825071873
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2019
Location
Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Phone
8019042230
Rating
82
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Alliance/Advocacy

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$315,209
Expenses
$473,963
Assets
$209,760
Liabilities
$273,201

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

Leadership & pay

7 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Andrea McCarthy (Executive Director)
  • Karra Porter (Chief Executive Officer)

Highest reported compensation

  • Andrea McCarthy (Executive Director): $50,610 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 assist families, law enforcement, and the community at large in the investigations of cold homicide and missing persons cases.

What it reported doing in 2025

The cold case coalition uses volunteers to help investigate cold cases via social media, news announcements, and the cold case talk podcast.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 67% 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 expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 97
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 69
  • Sustainability: 12
  • Growth: 40

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 92.7%; rating input score 93
  • Fundraising efficiency: $285.44 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 93; 93rd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th 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: 2 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 25
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • 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: -50.4%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.44; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 1.3; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 10.7%; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -6.5% per year; rating input score 0; 14th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 17.6% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -24.7% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 92.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 2 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $439K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $51K · 7 people listed
  • Consistency: 22 of 23 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 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.

  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 4/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 22/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 2/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 26/100.