South Carolina First Steps
Legal name: Williamsburg County First Steps to School Readiness Partnership
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 571097861
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2015
- Location
- Kingstree, SC, USA
- Phone
- 8433551031
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $591,820
- Expenses
- $620,547
- Assets
- $55,991
- Liabilities
- $45,246
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
12 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- FELICIA PATRICK (EXECUTIVE DI): $57,210 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To close the opportunity gap for our state's youngest learners by offering services that improve children's health, strengthen families, expand access to quality early care and education, and help transition rising kindergartners into school.
What it reported doing in 2024
Child care quality-first steps assists child care providers through training programs certified through sc endeavors and include topics in the areas of nutrition, health and safety, curriculum, child guidance, professional development and program administration. Additionally, the child care quality enhancement program aims to produce measurable improvements in the quality of care provided to young children. Also, first steps provides scholarships to high quality child care programs for eligible families so their families can return to work or school.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Affiliate-supported. 92% of the money available for current operations came from contributions from related organizations.
- 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: 87
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 79
- Sustainability: 18
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 99.7%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 95%; rating input score 95
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
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: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -4.9%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.09; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.81; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 9.2%; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 15.3% per year; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 5.2% per year; rating input score 100; 44th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 3% per year; rating input score 100; 30th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 5 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 2 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 99.7% of revenue deployed · 95% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $590K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $57K · 12 people listed
- Consistency: 23 of 23 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 10 filing years from 2009 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
- 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: 3 of 7 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 24/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 4/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 9/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 39/100.