Charity profile · Historical source record

Food Finders

EIN 33-0412749Human Services California Large

Historical collection: May 2019 · Rating details mostly from 2017. Source & context

The mission

What this organization describes

Rescuing Food, Ending Hunger

Food Finders was founded in 1989 by Arlene Mercer, who was concerned about the amount of food being thrown away rather than donated by local food merchants and grocers. Inspired to end the waste, she began forming liaisons with local vendors and seeking shelters that could use good, wholesome food to feed needy and impoverished families, children and elderly. Food Finders was quickly formed, and from there the kitchen-table business grew into what is now a multi-regional food bank that helps provide daily meals to more than 280 agencies and shelters throughout Southern California. Food Finders, which has grown to 9 employees and more than 300 volunteers, has rescued more than 121 million pounds of food to date, in addition to referring thousands of families to local shelters and agencies where meals are provided.

Mission and tagline reproduced from the source record.

Historical scorecard

Three perspectives. One record.

90.85Overall score
out of 100

87.06Financial score
out of 100

100.00Accountability & transparency
out of 100

These are the dataset’s historical numeric fields, not a current rating or a new DonorAPI.com assessment. Read the score context ↗

Financial context

Revenue, expenses, and composition

Total revenue · USD$16,856,829

Total expenses · USD$16,624,477

Program expenses

$16,325,236.41 recorded amount

98.2%

Fundraising expenses

$149,620.29 recorded amount

0.9%

Administrative expenses

$132,995.82 recorded amount

0.8%

Fundraising efficiency: $0.01 spent per $1 raised in donations, as defined in the source.

Expense shares are displayed as percentages. Component amounts in this collection match total expenses multiplied by the source ratios; rounding can leave a small difference from the total. The source does not supply a row-specific fiscal year. Field definitions ↗

Historical leadership record

The leadership information supplied

Recorded leader: Patricia A. Larson
Recorded compensation: $56,276.00
Recorded compensation percentage: 0.33%

These fields do not establish the current officeholder or current compensation. The metadata does not specify the denominator of the leader compensation percentage. Read with context ↗

Inspect all 23 original source fields

Exact source strings are retained below, including numeric precision. A blank value is marked as not reported; zero remains zero.

All 23 original fields for Food Finders
Source field	Original source value
`ascore` Accountability & transparency score	100.0
`category` Category	Human Services
`description` Mission & description	Food Finders was founded in 1989 by Arlene Mercer, who was concerned about the amount of food being thrown away rather than donated by local food merchants and grocers. Inspired to end the waste, she began forming liaisons with local vendors and seeking shelters that could use good, wholesome food to feed needy and impoverished families, children and elderly. Food Finders was quickly formed, and from there the kitchen-table business grew into what is now a multi-regional food bank that helps provide daily meals to more than 280 agencies and shelters throughout Southern California. Food Finders, which has grown to 9 employees and more than 300 volunteers, has rescued more than 121 million pounds of food to date, in addition to referring thousands of families to local shelters and agencies where meals are provided.
`ein` EIN	33-0412749
`tot_exp` Total expenses	16624477.0
`admin_exp_p` Administrative expense fraction	0.008
`fund_eff` Fundraising efficiency ($ per $1 raised)	0.01
`fund_exp_p` Fundraising expense fraction	0.009000000000000001
`program_exp_p` Program expense fraction	0.982
`fscore` Financial score	87.06
`leader` Recorded leader	Patricia A. Larson
`leader_comp` Recorded leader compensation	56276.0
`leader_comp_p` Recorded leader compensation fraction	0.0033
`motto` Tagline	Rescuing Food, Ending Hunger
`name` Charity name	Food Finders
`tot_rev` Total revenue	16856829.0
`score` Overall score	90.85
`state` State code	CA
`subcategory` Subcategory	Food Banks, Food Pantries, and Food Distribution
`size` Source size label	big
`program_exp` Program expenses	16325236.413999999
`fund_exp` Fundraising expenses	149620.293
`admin_exp` Administrative expenses	132995.816

Identity & classification

At a glance

EIN: 33-0412749
Source category: Human Services
Source subcategory: Food Banks, Food Pantries, and Food Distribution
Recorded location: California (CA)
Expense-based size: Large
Above $13.5M in total expenses · source label: big

Explore alongside

Related source records

Linked by source subcategory, prioritizing the same recorded state. Not a recommendation or ranking.

A useful next step

Keep the context.

Check current organizational information separately before making a giving decision. This record does not include an official website, donation URL, or current eligibility field.

Giving research guide ↗

Source: Charity Navigator Scores Expenses Dataset, version 1, attributed to katyjqian on Kaggle. Collection: May 2019; rating details mostly from 2017. Read attribution, scope, and reuse notes.