Castleton Ranch - CA - Legit?

[2horseygirls]

Email sent to Jacque Schulz, whom I know personally.

Happynow, I have no dog in this fight, so my questions come from a purely academic place.

Castleton Ranch Horse Rescue does not come up as being eligible for tax-deductible contributions, or as having filed 990s, at the IRS Exempt Organization link that CRHR has posted on their homepage (http://www.irs.gov/Charities-&-Non-Profits/Exempt-Organizations-Select-Check). Why not?
ETA: My bad … went to IRS main page, searched Exempt Organizations, entered the name again, and found Castleton:
11-3731839 Castleton Ranch Horse Rescue Inc.
Valley Center CA United States PC
[I]Deductibility Status

In general, an individual who itemizes deductions may deduct contributions to most charitable organizations up to 50% of his or her adjusted gross income computed without regard to net operating loss carrybacks. Individuals generally may deduct charitable contributions to other organizations up to 30% of their adjusted gross income (computed without regard to net operating loss carrybacks). These limitations (and organizational status) are indicated as follows:

Code: PC Type of organization and use of contribution: A public charity. Deductibility Limitation: 50%[/I]

There’s not much information on Castleton online, and your Guidestar report is not the most glowing I’ve ever read.

You do not appear on Charity Navigator because, according to CN, you have not filed seven years’ worth of 990s - but according to your website, you’ve been in business since 2004…?

These are legitimate inconsistencies that warrant explanation.

As I said in my email to Ms. Schulz, there is no rush to answer this - I try to keep my donations local, to organizations that I am personally able to visit - but the PR side of me hates to see conclusions being leapt to hastily, and an organization spoken ill of, if they are legitimate and just prefer to operate quietly.

On the other hand, if they are not legitimate, I hate to see other legitimate organizations go begging, and have their reputations tarnished by the merest association with “other equine rescues” that are not up front.

Thank you in advance for your reply.

[OveroHunter]

Man, if my MIL’s ranch could figure out how to get our vet bills down to only $12,000 per 82 horses she’d be one rich woman…

[tikihorse2]

[QUOTE=Alagirl;8125904]
Yes, rhubarb!
Haven’t had any in ages![/QUOTE]

So-- pie, bars, or cake?

Kim

[Alagirl]

[QUOTE=tikihorse2;8127604]
So-- pie, bars, or cake?

Kim[/QUOTE]

Cake with almond meringue

[tikihorse2]

[QUOTE=Alagirl;8127615]
Cake with almond meringue[/QUOTE]

Rhubarb cake with almond meringue? I’ll have to find a recipe.

Kim

[Alagirl]

[QUOTE=tikihorse2;8127620]
Rhubarb cake with almond meringue? I’ll have to find a recipe.

Kim[/QUOTE]

I buried it someplace…but gawd, I’d love a piece!

[happynow]

I am in the process of trying to upload photographs of our ranches plus other relevant material to a site where you can look and retrieve. I am not so good at this sort of stuff but will get it done and let you know.

We also wish to apologize to you for the detrimental remark made on your character. We do not know you or anything about you so we are not qualified to make such a comment, and once again we apologize. However it is sort of the same thing in reverse. You do not know us or anything about us and used language which was completely uncalled for. I understand that this has been corrected by COTH. As far as we are concerned matter is closed and water under the bridge. We have a true desire to show you and the other writers that we are indeed a worthwhile organization. We may disagree on how we raise our funding however the most important thing is that we have and are making a positive impact in saving lives. It is important to our donors that we will still be around doing our work many years from now. So many rescue groups fail because of lack of proper funding. Good intentions is not enough. People who are attacking our company fail to see that our organization shows net assets of +1.2M a figure that many would wish to share. Anyway I will get the photographs and the other info about our organization including details about a very neat program that we discussed with ASPCA when they were here about reducing the number of horses being sent to auctions. Will be in touch hopefully soon and I hope there is no bad feeling. Horse rescue as we know is a very emotive subject. Along the way we have been threatened by killer buyers, feedlot owners, various individuals and one very large pharmaceutical company.

[happynow]

Finally someone with a sense of fairness. Seems to be in pretty short supply on this site. As you probably know we are required to submit our 990 returns to the IRS each year which we have done since 2004. If we had not I think it fairly certain that the IRS would have fined us and pulled our 501 © (3) status. I will take the matter up with CN and find out what they are playing at. Yes we do operate quietly but we are very successful and have made a very positive impact on the lives of many horses. People who are complaining about our organization have completely got it wrong about our company. Castleton Ranch Horse Rescue Inc has net assets in excess of 1.2M. Thank you for contacting Jacque at ASPCA. We shared a very interesting discussion when she and her colleagues visited our Valley Center ranch. If you are in CA, and as I have said to the other writers on this matter, please take the time and visit one of our ranches and see at first hand what we are doing. We have absolutely nothing whatsoever to hide and would welcome the opportunity to spend some time with those who doubt our worthiness. I will get back to you on the issue concerning CN. I also have a letter which has been signed jointly by Art Taylor,CEO BBB, Jacob Harold, CEO Guidestar and Ken Berger CEO, Charity Navigator. which they have given us permission to use to send to prospective donors. The letter is basically about a misconception about overhead spending and fundraising. It is very well written and should help many folks navigate there way around making a decision about who to donate to. Remember, people have a choice to donate to whatever organization they choose, no one is holding a gun to their head. All I can say is that we are a well managed, well funded organization who does use a fundraising organization to further our operation. Prior to signing up with them we spoke with many rescue groups who were already using this form of raising money and not one would ever wish not to have a fundraising company. Since we have been using this mode our company has grown rapidly and our work has benefited greatly. I feel sure that there would be many rescue groups out there who would wish to have our balance sheet. I am not trying to impress merely showing our good management and our donors that we intend to be here for a long time.

[happynow]

[QUOTE=2horseygirls;8126741]
Email sent to Jacque Schulz, whom I know personally.

Happynow, I have no dog in this fight, so my questions come from a purely academic place.

Castleton Ranch Horse Rescue does not come up as being eligible for tax-deductible contributions, or as having filed 990s, at the IRS Exempt Organization link that CRHR has posted on their homepage (http://www.irs.gov/Charities-&-Non-Profits/Exempt-Organizations-Select-Check). Why not?
ETA: My bad … went to IRS main page, searched Exempt Organizations, entered the name again, and found Castleton:
11-3731839 Castleton Ranch Horse Rescue Inc.
Valley Center CA United States PC
[I]Deductibility Status

In general, an individual who itemizes deductions may deduct contributions to most charitable organizations up to 50% of his or her adjusted gross income computed without regard to net operating loss carrybacks. Individuals generally may deduct charitable contributions to other organizations up to 30% of their adjusted gross income (computed without regard to net operating loss carrybacks). These limitations (and organizational status) are indicated as follows:

Code: PC Type of organization and use of contribution: A public charity. Deductibility Limitation: 50%[/I]

There’s not much information on Castleton online, and your Guidestar report is not the most glowing I’ve ever read.

You do not appear on Charity Navigator because, according to CN, you have not filed seven years’ worth of 990s - but according to your website, you’ve been in business since 2004…?

These are legitimate inconsistencies that warrant explanation.

As I said in my email to Ms. Schulz, there is no rush to answer this - I try to keep my donations local, to organizations that I am personally able to visit - but the PR side of me hates to see conclusions being leapt to hastily, and an organization spoken ill of, if they are legitimate and just prefer to operate quietly.

On the other hand, if they are not legitimate, I hate to see other legitimate organizations go begging, and have their reputations tarnished by the merest association with “other equine rescues” that are not up front.

Thank you in advance for your reply.[/QUOTE]

Did you receive my reply. It is showing up somewhere else!!!

[happynow]

[QUOTE=Kwill;8125690]
Happynow, please tell us all about your rescue so I can stand corrected. I would love to see photos of adoptable horses, pictures of your ranch, and any evidence that money you receive is supporting the 82+ horses you have had at your place since 2008, when, as you correctly point out, I first posted about this.

I have no idea if you have a good reputation, since no one has ever heard of you other than through direct mail marketing.

Seriously?! I am “setting out” to do nothing of the kind. My mother received your mailing and I told her given what you had written in your brochure, I would advise her not to support an organization that took in horses they could not feed – by your own admission!

Thanks much for calling me stupid. Stay classy, Lisa.[/QUOTE]

Did you receive a message I just sent to you. It seems to be showing up somewhere else

[happynow]

[QUOTE=happynow;8127750]
Did you receive my reply. It is showing up somewhere else!!![/QUOTE]

It is showing up as #48. Don’t know what happened. Must have pressed the wrong icon

[Appsolute]

The amounts I refer to above are not assets, I am talking about incoming funds. And again, according to your tax returns HUGE amounts are spent on solicitation rather than on the actual horses.

I see horses listed on your site for sponsor. Are any for adoption? Hoe about before and after stories?

How many horses a year do you take in?

Your group may help horses - again, I just rather help groups that use their funds to take care of horses - not on presidents salaries, or marketing groups, or “data processing” etc.

[happynow]

[QUOTE=happynow;8127757]
Did you receive a message I just sent to you. It seems to be showing up somewhere else[/QUOTE]

showing up as #47

[Alagirl]

[QUOTE=happynow;8127702]
I am in the process of trying to upload photographs of our ranches plus other relevant material to a site where you can look and retrieve. I am not so good at this sort of stuff but will get it done and let you know.

We also wish to apologize to you for the detrimental remark made on your character. We do not know you or anything about you so we are not qualified to make such a comment, and once again we apologize. However it is sort of the same thing in reverse. You do not know us or anything about us and used language which was completely uncalled for. I understand that this has been corrected by COTH. As far as we are concerned matter is closed and water under the bridge. We have a true desire to show you and the other writers that we are indeed a worthwhile organization. We may disagree on how we raise our funding however the most important thing is that we have and are making a positive impact in saving lives. It is important to our donors that we will still be around doing our work many years from now. So many rescue groups fail because of lack of proper funding. Good intentions is not enough. People who are attacking our company fail to see that our organization shows net assets of +1.2M a figure that many would wish to share. Anyway I will get the photographs and the other info about our organization including details about a very neat program that we discussed with ASPCA when they were here about reducing the number of horses being sent to auctions. Will be in touch hopefully soon and I hope there is no bad feeling. Horse rescue as we know is a very emotive subject. Along the way we have been threatened by killer buyers, feedlot owners, various individuals and one very large pharmaceutical company.[/QUOTE]

@happynow;8127745

Finally someone with a sense of fairness. Seems to be in pretty short supply on this site. As you probably know we are required to submit our 990 returns to the IRS each year which we have done since 2004. If we had not I think it fairly certain that the IRS would have fined us and pulled our 501 © (3) status. I will take the matter up with CN and find out what they are playing at. Yes we do operate quietly but we are very successful and have made a very positive impact on the lives of many horses. People who are complaining about our organization have completely got it wrong about our company. Castleton Ranch Horse Rescue Inc has net assets in excess of 1.2M. Thank you for contacting Jacque at ASPCA. We shared a very interesting discussion when she and her colleagues visited our Valley Center ranch. If you are in CA, and as I have said to the other writers on this matter, please take the time and visit one of our ranches and see at first hand what we are doing. We have absolutely nothing whatsoever to hide and would welcome the opportunity to spend some time with those who doubt our worthiness. I will get back to you on the issue concerning CN. I also have a letter which has been signed jointly by Art Taylor,CEO BBB, Jacob Harold, CEO Guidestar and Ken Berger CEO, Charity Navigator. which they have given us permission to use to send to prospective donors. The letter is basically about a misconception about overhead spending and fundraising. It is very well written and should help many folks navigate there way around making a decision about who to donate to. Remember, people have a choice to donate to whatever organization they choose, no one is holding a gun to their head. All I can say is that we are a well managed, well funded organization who does use a fundraising organization to further our operation. Prior to signing up with them we spoke with many rescue groups who were already using this form of raising money and not one would ever wish not to have a fundraising company. Since we have been using this mode our company has grown rapidly and our work has benefited greatly. I feel sure that there would be many rescue groups out there who would wish to have our balance sheet. I am not trying to impress merely showing our good management and our donors that we intend to be here for a long time.

Ok, I see you actually CAN put paragraphs in a post.

So, why don’t you?

Do you expect people to slough though this wall of text and still consider you for anything?

Regardless, maybe you should use your collective writing talents and update your mailers.

(FYI: The ASPCA isn’t on my list of charities either. Not even near the bottom! For many reasons, which makes them not a reference to me. But that’s just me)

[MoonlightsMom]

Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but I am confused by the phrasing happynow is using. Is the ranch a company or a rescue? I was under the impression a company is a commercial business with the end goal being a profit, and a rescue is an organization geared towards saving creatures from horrific circumstances.

[happynow]

[QUOTE=MoonlightsMom;8128092]
Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but I am confused by the phrasing happynow is using. Is the ranch a company or a rescue? I was under the impression a company is a commercial business with the end goal being a profit, and a rescue is an organization geared towards saving creatures from horrific circumstances.[/QUOTE]

Any incorporated company whether it is non-profit or for profit can both be referred to as a company, organization etc.

[happynow]

Charity Navigator

Spoke with CN and went on their website. Up until 2009 our income level only required us to file form 990EZ. When our income level rose above a certain level we were then required to file regular 990 forms. We filed 990EZ for years up to 2008 and we have filed 990 regular form since then. If you go to CN site and find Castleton, click on unrated organizations and we will pop up. It shows that we have filed 5 regular 990 forms in succession however CN only rate organizations which have filed 7 990 regular forms in succession. When we file 2014 return this will be six filed consecutively and when we get to 2015 that will make 7 and then they will rate the organization. Not our rules but CN criteria.

[Appsolute]

[QUOTE=Alagirl;8127887]

(FYI: The ASPCA isn’t on my list of charities either. Not even near the bottom! For many reasons, which makes them not a reference to me. But that’s just me)
:)[/QUOTE]

Not just you. I don’t trust the ASPCA as far as I can throw them. Another organization that spends more on marketing than helping animals.

And its not just you and me either:

Merry Grinch-mas: the truth about ASPCA and HSUS spending

“One of the ASPCA’s and HSUS’s favored expenditures is advertising…Just what percentage of the ASPCA’s massive donations actually goes to the animals is up for some debate. Although tax information is publicly available, finding out what the accurate percentages are is a whole different story. At the high end, some claim as much as just below 50% of donations goes to the animals. At the low end, there is a growing group of critics claiming the ASPCA uses only $11.00 of every $100.00 donated on the animals.”

So, maybe Castleton Ranch and the ASPCA do have a lot in common.

[Alagirl]

[QUOTE=Appsolute;8129051]
Not just you. I don’t trust the ASPCA as far as I can throw them. Another organization that spends more on marketing than helping animals.

And its not just you and me either:

Merry Grinch-mas: the truth about ASPCA and HSUS spending

“One of the ASPCA’s and HSUS’s favored expenditures is advertising…Just what percentage of the ASPCA’s massive donations actually goes to the animals is up for some debate. Although tax information is publicly available, finding out what the accurate percentages are is a whole different story. At the high end, some claim as much as just below 50% of donations goes to the animals. At the low end, there is a growing group of critics claiming the ASPCA uses only $11.00 of every $100.00 donated on the animals.”

So, maybe Castleton Ranch and the ASPCA do have a lot in common.[/QUOTE]

When you call the phone number at the bottom of the screen during an ASPCA commercial, your money goes to the New York-based ASPCA, not to your local SPCA.

another big beef I have with them.

[PeteyPie]

[QUOTE=happynow;8129029]
Any incorporated company whether it is non-profit or for profit can both be referred to as a company, organization etc.[/QUOTE]

I think the wording can be confusing because “rescue” has different meanings to different people. When I hear “rescue,” I usually intermix it with “non-profit,” but I can understand how it would bother some. There are a lot of non-profit organizations which help horses in different ways, I mean think of it:

Sanctuary
Rehab
Rehoming/Adoption
Training/retraining
Public Education
Lobbying
Gelding services
Hay banks

I personally do not have a problem calling a place like New Vocations a rescue. They get Thoroughbreds off the track, evaluate them, retrain them to some degree, give them a time off to get rid of meds in their systems, gain weight, slow down, and adjust to a new life (if necessary – some don’t need it), and then they sell them for a small amount of money. You can imagine how much time, money, and volunteer work it would take to accomplish that. The horses are not dragged off of a slaughter truck, but many would end up there if not for that non-profit organization.

So many rescues do a combination of things, and I do not have a problem with that either. There is a place in Northern California which has a gelding fund, but also takes in sick or thin horses, rehabs them, and adopts them out. Some organizations like Shiloh Horse Rescue do a combination of Sanctuary and Adoption.

As long as the organization makes it clear what their primary goal is, I don’t care if they call themselves fuzzy orangutans, but back on topic of this thread, this Castleton Ranch organization advertises itself as a rescue which saves many horses, but its chief apologist here won’t even say what they do. He/she still has not said how many horses they take in per year, how many are given sanctuary, whether they adopt out animals (and if they do, why is there no link on their website on available horses, prices, etc.?), if they have a trainer who evaluates the adoptable horses – nada.

My opinion, based on the fact that this place rakes in over a million dollars a year and there are clearly only a handful of horses on the main property, is that this place follows the letter of the law but is a complete scam when it comes to the spirit of the law. Castleton Ranch’s financial records are public information. They are probably taking very good care of the sixteen or so horses that they have (and if that number is wrong, please correct me. I can only guess based on what I see on Google Maps!). I’m sure that if the ASPCA or any vet checked on those horses, they would be satisfied with their care (I would HOPE so!). The bulk of that money is clearly going to the pockets of the administrators – again, my perception and opinion.