Vines

Legal name: Volunteers Improving Neighborhood Environments Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
272617454
IRS 990 coverage
2017–2024
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Binghamton, NY, USA
Phone
6072058108
Rating
77
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Religion Related N.E.C.
Affiliation
Religious (unspecified)

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,645,828
Expenses
$712,535
Assets
$3,120,823
Liabilities
$1,173,763

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

Leadership & pay

15 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • AMELIA LODOLCE (Executive Dir.): $56,799 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

The organization is committed to developing a sustainable community food system by bringing together diverse groups of people, with a focus on youth development, to establish community gardens, urban agriculture and community green spaces. The organization strives to develop and beautify urban sites and empower community members of all ages and abilities.

What it reported doing in 2024

Urban Farm & Youth Program: The organization's urban farm program provides healthy and affordable food to local residents and combats the pervasiveness of urban blight in the downtown region. The urban farm enjoys healthy partnerships with local restaurants and organizations to support its programming. The urban farm produce is available for sale through VINES Farm Share program. A portion of the produce is purchased and used by several local restaurants and another portion is donated to the Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse (CHOW), which distributes the produce to local food pantries and families in need. As part of this program VINES manages growing space in the Town of Conklin, in which VINES grows food for both its farm share program and donation. In addition, VINES runs a Grow Binghamton Youth Program, which is a year-round youth employment program designed for youth, ages fourteen to twenty-one, to build life skills while growing food for the community. Youth also help run the Build a Garden Program through which youth construct and prepare raised garden beds at people's homes and portable garden bags that allow people to safely grow food at their homes while avoiding lead contamination.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 70% 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.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 57
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 76
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 35.7%; rating input score 36
  • Program expense ratio: 83.4%; rating input score 83
  • Fundraising efficiency: $65.62 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 82; 82nd 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: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 56.7%; rating input score 94; 94th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.38; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.38; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 8%; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 16.6% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 24.2% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 34.1% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: Mission, programs, and operating context captured from the official website.
  • Where the money goes: 35.7% of revenue deployed · 83.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 14 of 14 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 5 filed program accomplishments · $594K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $57K · 15 people listed
  • Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $807K reported
  • Consistency: 30 of 31 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 7 filing years from 2017 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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 36/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 21/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 44/100.