CharityWatch has identified multiple concerns with the financial reporting and governance practices of Keepers of the Wild based on our review of its fiscal 2023 IRS Form 990 and audited financial statements. After an in-depth evaluation of these documents, along with correspondence with the charity, CharityWatch determined that in 2023 Keepers of the Wild spent just 57% of its total cash expenses on its programs, with the remaining 43% spent on overhead. It cost the charity $38 to raise each $100 in cash support that year. These ratios earned Keepers of the Wild a “C” rating on CharityWatch’s “A+” to “F” rating scale for its fiscal year 2023.

CharityWatch’s rating challenges that of data aggregator website Charity Navigator, which uses automation to pull self-reported data from hundreds of thousands of unaudited charity tax filings as a means of computing its star ratings and percentage scores. For the 3-year period ending 12/31/2023, Charity Navigator assigned Keepers of the Wild a 100% score and a perfect 4-Star rating.

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Common Reporting Errors in Charity Tax Filings

Unfortunately, IRS Forms 990 are notoriously rife with reporting errors, making charity ratings based on them unreliable if financial documents are not analyzed and appropriately corrected. In addition, due to the complexity of charity financial reporting, even accurately reported data may be inconsistent from year to year, incomparable with other charities due to differing reporting methodologies, and/or incomplete given that a tax filing typically represents only one legal entity of what may be a much larger charity with multiple tax filings.

Common reporting errors CharityWatch has identified in charity tax filings include, but are not limited to: inappropriately netted fundraising costs; inflated valuations of in-kind goods; inclusion of in-kind services in the Form 990 despite the IRS disallowing recognition of these types of donations; opaque related-party transactions; misallocation of fundraising costs erroneously reported as program expenses—the list goes on.

By contrast, a charity’s audited financial statements, which CharityWatch analyzes in tandem with its tax filing, are typically more reliable since they are the product of audit procedures that follow Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS), are presented according to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), and are produced by independent certified public accountants (CPAs).

Algorithms that convert unreliable charity tax filing data into simplistic scores can be gamed and often reward optics over real financial efficiency and responsible governance. The result is that donors relying on 990-only ratings can be steered toward the wrong charities and away from the right ones, leading to unwise giving decisions. CharityWatch mitigates this by analyzing audited financial statements alongside 990s, probing footnotes, related-party schedules, and other original documents to produce ratings that reflect economic reality, not just tax-form optics.

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Questionable Expense Classifications

Upon analyzing Keepers of the Wild’s fiscal 2023 audited financial statements and IRS tax Form 990, CharityWatch observed that certain expenses which appeared to be related to fundraising were instead reported as 100% program expenses. Misclassifying fundraising expenses as program expenses inflates the percentage of a charity’s budget that appears to be spent on mission-related work, potentially misleading donors.

CharityWatch specifically inquired about the organization’s lack of reporting of Joint Costs—expenses from combined educational and fundraising campaigns—because:

• $372,491 was reported as “Animal Awareness” (allocated 100% to program expense)
• $259,863 was reported as “Education Materials” (allocated 100% to program expense)
• $18,517 was reported as “Postage Expense” (with $16,665 allocated to program expense, $1,852 to management, and none to fundraising)

CharityWatch reached out to Keepers of the Wild via email on June 2nd, 2025 to inquire about these and other issues. The organization acknowledged that both the “Animal Awareness” and “Education Materials” expenses were in fact related to fundraising, saying they are both “intrinsic to fundraising,” despite their tax filing reporting them entirely as program expenses. The organization also acknowledged that “Postage Expense” included both fundraising and management components, despite reporting no postage-related fundraising expenses in its tax filing.

Subsequent to our investigation, in September 2025, Keepers of the Wild posted its 2024 IRS Form 990 on its website. In the Statement of Functional Expenses (IRS Form 990, Part IX, lines 24a, 24c, & 24d), the charity continues to allocate “Animal Awareness” and “Education Materials” only to program and does not indicate that these line items include any fundraising or management activities. Thus, CharityWatch maintains our concern that Keepers of the Wild may be continuing to inflate its program expenses, which could mislead donors into believing their donations to the organization will be spent more efficiently than is actually the case.

When computing our letter grade rating for Keepers of the Wild, CharityWatch reallocated the above cited amounts from program to fundraising and treated them as Joint Costs under SOP 98-2 (ASC 958-720), noting that the organization’s 2023 Form 990 failed to disclose any such expenses.

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Compensation Reporting Discrepancies

CharityWatch next questioned Keepers of the Wild about discrepancies in the charity’s reporting of compensation to its leaders:

• IRS Form 990, Part IX showed $97,000 paid to “current officers, directors, trustees, and key employees.” This section of the tax filing is designed to report the aggregate total of compensation to such individuals without any breakouts per individual.
• Part VII, where such compensation must be disclosed per individual, reported $0 compensation to these individuals.

When asked for an explanation, Keepers of the Wild stated that Jonathan Kraft, founder and executive director “was the highest-paid key employee” and received $97,000 in 2023. However, his compensation was not disclosed in Part VII, as is required for all current key employees.

CharityWatch also noted that in Part VII of the Form 990, Keepers of the Wild reported Lara Kraft (Chairwoman) working 50 hours per week, and Dwight Jory (Treasurer) and Kelsey Burkett (Secretary) each working 40 hours per week, all for zero compensation. CharityWatch asked the organization to confirm that these individuals received no compensation of any kind.

The charity replied that “board members” serve voluntarily and are not compensated for their service, but did not directly confirm that these individuals received no compensation for their full-time roles. CharityWatch noted that Keepers of the Wild checks boxes in Part VII of its 2023 tax filing indicating that Lara Kraft, Dwight Jory, and Kelsey Burkett are officers of the charity, not board members. Thus, Keepers of the Wild never answered our question about whether or not these individuals received compensation of any kind from the charity. It only stated that they did not receive compensation for their roles as “board members.”

Compensation to “Officers, Directors, Trustees, Key Employees, and Highest Compensated Employees” is required to be broken out per individual in the IRS Form 990. This requirement applies to all of an organization’s “current officers, directors, and trustees…regardless of [the] amount of compensation,” irrespective of whether an individual was paid as an employee or an independent contractor.

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Family Relationships and Board Independence

Keepers of the Wild’s 2023 Form 990 Schedule O disclosed family relationships among leadership:

• D. Jory (Chairperson) and T. Jory (Board Member) are related.
• K. Burkett (Secretary) and J. Burkett (Board Member) are related.

Despite these relationships, the charity reported in Part VI, Section A of its tax filing that in 2023 all nine of its voting board members were “independent” according to IRS standards . This reporting conflicts with Part VII of its tax filing in which the charity checks boxes indicating that the organization had only six directors in 2023, not nine.

CharityWatch also questions the charity’s claim in Part VI of its tax filing that its board was 100% independent in 2023. One of the IRS’s requirements for a board member to be considered independent is that the individual is not compensated by the organization (if they are required to be disclosed in Form 990 Part VII, which lists a charity’s officers, directors, trustees, and key employees). Meaning, anyone listed in Form 990 (Part VII) who was compensated by the organization in any capacity should have their compensation disclosed in this section; and, of these compensated individuals, anyone who serves on the board would not be considered “independent” by IRS standards.

Data aggregator, Charity Navigator, having taken the charity’s tax form reporting at face value, states on Keepers of the Wild’s profile page that its board is comprised of “100% independent members.” Charity Navigator further states: “Industry professionals strongly recommend an independent governing body to allow for full deliberation and diversity of thinking on governance and other organizational matters. We check to see that a majority of board members are identified as independent on their tax form.” Charity Navigator does not claim to conduct any analysis of a charity’s tax form to root out potential errors or discrepancies in its financial or governance reporting.

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Conclusion: CharityWatch’s Concerns

The issues identified by CharityWatch include:

• Misclassification of fundraising costs as program expenses.
• Failure to disclose Joint Costs from combined educational/fundraising campaigns.
• Inconsistent and incomplete compensation reporting in the IRS Form 990.
• Reporting family-related board members as “independent.”
• Conflicting information on the number of board members.

These inconsistencies and omissions undermine transparency and make it difficult for donors to accurately assess how Keepers of the Wild allocates its resources. They also provide a great example for why charity tax filings, and the charity ratings based on them without adequate analysis, are often unreliable. CharityWatch recommends that donors approach this organization with caution until it demonstrates improved compliance with IRS reporting requirements, accurate expense allocation, and improved governance.

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