Buckhorn Children and Family Services 
The information on this page was last updated 8/11/2026. If you see errors or omissions, please email: [email protected]
Summary
Located deep in the mountains of Appalachia, Buckhorn Children & Family Services offers Kentucky's most abused and neglected children and adults a place to heal in safety and peace.
Contact information
Mailing address:
Buckhorn Children and Family Services
116 Buckhorn Lane
Buckhorn, KY 41721
Website: buckhorn.org
Phone: (800) 472-3678
Email: [email protected]
Organization details
EIN: 610524092
CEO/President: Mikka Trent
Chairman: J. Tyler Ward II
Board size: 12
Founder: Harvey S. Murdoch
Ruling year: 1962
Tax deductible: Yes
Fiscal year end: 07/31
Member of ECFA: No
Member of ECFA since:
Purpose
Sometimes, these children come to us with nothing, and they're broken, angry, and ready to give up on life.
But this is not the end of their story. At Buckhorn, their story is just beginning.
These children are in need of a safe place. They're in need of a healthy environment. They're in need of treatment and therapy, because without this, they have no future.
Mission statement
At Buckhorn Children and Family Services, our mission is to change lives by providing mental and physical healing, social acceptance, and physical hope.
Statement of faith
Donor confidence score
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Transparency grade
D
To understand our transparency grade, click here.
Financial efficiency ratings
Sector: Adoption/Foster Care
| Category | Rating | Overall rank | Sector rank |
| Overall efficiency rating | | 444 of 1472 | 23 of 59 |
| Fund acquisition rating | | 63 of 1472 | 2 of 59 |
| Resource allocation rating | | 396 of 1472 | 26 of 59 |
| Asset utilization rating | | 1301 of 1473 | 51 of 59 |
According to the organization's Form 990, it received $1,500,000 in government grants in 2025.
To understand our financial efficiency ratings, click here.
Financial ratios
| Funding ratios | Sector median | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
Return on fundraising efforts Return on fundraising efforts = Fundraising expense / Total contributions | 10% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
Fundraising cost ratio Fundraising cost ratio = Fundraising expense / Total revenue | 5% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
Contributions reliance Contributions reliance = Total contributions / Total revenue | 66% | 89% | 86% | 73% | 79% | 73% |
Fundraising expense ratio Fundraising expense ratio = Fundraising expense / Total expenses | 6% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
Other revenue reliance Other revenue reliance = Total other revenue / Total revenue | 34% | 11% | 14% | 27% | 21% | 27% |
| Operating ratios | Sector median | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
Program expense ratio Program expense ratio = Program services / Total expenses | 81% | 81% | 80% | 80% | 83% | 86% |
Spending ratio Spending ratio = Total expenses / Total revenue | 97% | 91% | 118% | 89% | 115% | 141% |
Program output ratio Program output ratio = Program services / Total revenue | 74% | 74% | 94% | 71% | 95% | 121% |
Savings ratio Savings ratio = Surplus (deficit) / Total revenue | 3% | 9% | -18% | 11% | -15% | -41% |
Reserve accumulation rate Reserve accumulation rate = Surplus (deficit) / Net assets | 2% | 295% | 214% | 158% | 146% | 151% |
General and admin ratio General and admin ratio = Management and general expense / Total expenses | 12% | 19% | 20% | 20% | 17% | 14% |
| Investing ratios | Sector median | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
Total asset turnover Total asset turnover = Total expenses / Total assets | 0.71 | 0.66 | 0.61 | 0.56 | 0.50 | 0.73 |
Degree of long-term investment Degree of long-term investment = Total assets / Total current assets | 1.76 | 7.33 | 9.87 | 7.90 | 5.96 | 13.87 |
Current asset turnover Current asset turnover = Total expenses / Total current assets | 1.54 | 4.86 | 6.03 | 4.44 | 2.99 | 10.15 |
| Liquidity ratios | Sector median | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
Current ratio Current ratio = Total current assets / Total current liabilities | 13.40 | 3.68 | 2.26 | 8.50 | 11.96 | 0.44 |
Current liabilities ratio Current liabilities ratio = Total current liabilities / Total current assets | 0.07 | 0.27 | 0.44 | 0.12 | 0.08 | 2.29 |
Liquid reserve level Liquid reserve level = (Total current assets - Total current liabilities) / (Total expenses / 12) | 6.90 | 1.80 | 1.11 | 2.38 | 3.68 | -1.53 |
| Solvency ratios | Sector median | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
Liabilities ratio Liabilities ratio = Total liabilities / Total assets | 8% | 98% | 104% | 96% | 105% | 114% |
Debt ratio Debt ratio = Debt / Total assets | 0% | 6% | 10% | 10% | 27% | 17% |
Reserve coverage ratio Reserve coverage ratio = Net assets / Total expenses | 110% | 3% | -7% | 8% | -9% | -19% |
Financials
| Balance sheet | |||||
| Assets | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
| Cash | $719,790 | $493,955 | $862,466 | $616,596 | $120,256 |
| Receivables, inventories, prepaids | $1,003,319 | $726,218 | $699,920 | $1,554,566 | $726,425 |
| Short-term investments | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Other current assets | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Total current assets | $1,723,109 | $1,220,173 | $1,562,386 | $2,171,162 | $846,681 |
| Long-term investments | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Fixed assets | $2,372,196 | $2,284,894 | $2,251,090 | $2,238,000 | $2,365,803 |
| Other long-term assets | $8,534,871 | $8,534,871 | $8,534,871 | $8,534,871 | $8,534,871 |
| Total long-term assets | $10,907,067 | $10,819,765 | $10,785,961 | $10,772,871 | $10,900,674 |
| Total assets | $12,630,176 | $12,039,938 | $12,348,347 | $12,944,033 | $11,747,355 |
| Liabilities | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
| Payables and accrued expenses | $467,614 | $540,423 | $183,713 | $181,497 | $1,941,269 |
| Other current liabilities | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Total current liabilities | $467,614 | $540,423 | $183,713 | $181,497 | $1,941,269 |
| Debt | $781,099 | $1,250,229 | $1,250,261 | $3,469,541 | $2,045,407 |
| Due to (from) affiliates | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Other long-term liabilities | $11,115,562 | $10,768,611 | $10,382,788 | $9,884,881 | $9,408,389 |
| Total long-term liabilities | $11,896,661 | $12,018,840 | $11,633,049 | $13,354,422 | $11,453,796 |
| Total liabilities | $12,364,275 | $12,559,263 | $11,816,762 | $13,535,919 | $13,395,065 |
| Net assets | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
| Without donor restrictions | $265,901 | ($519,325) | $531,585 | ($591,886) | ($1,647,710) |
| With donor restrictions | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Net assets | $265,901 | ($519,325) | $531,585 | ($591,886) | ($1,647,710) |
| Revenues and expenses | |||||
| Revenue | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
| Total contributions | $8,156,725 | $5,367,325 | $5,712,462 | $4,452,953 | $4,444,622 |
| Program service revenue | $824,243 | $852,245 | $586,244 | $825,375 | $1,597,694 |
| Membership dues | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Investment income | $120,097 | $2,865 | $45,396 | $3,323 | $2,020 |
| Other revenue | $51,557 | $29,328 | $1,439,205 | $346,493 | $61,991 |
| Total other revenue | $995,897 | $884,438 | $2,070,845 | $1,175,191 | $1,661,705 |
| Total revenue | $9,152,622 | $6,251,763 | $7,783,307 | $5,628,144 | $6,106,327 |
| Expenses | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
| Program services | $6,796,463 | $5,899,190 | $5,557,481 | $5,362,352 | $7,384,184 |
| Management and general | $1,570,933 | $1,462,504 | $1,384,964 | $1,128,077 | $1,209,625 |
| Fundraising | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Total expenses | $8,367,396 | $7,361,694 | $6,942,445 | $6,490,429 | $8,593,809 |
| Change in net assets | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
| Surplus (deficit) | $785,226 | ($1,109,931) | $840,862 | ($862,285) | ($2,487,482) |
| Other changes in net assets | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Total change in net assets | $785,226 | ($1,109,931) | $840,862 | ($862,285) | ($2,487,482) |
Compensation
| Name | Title | Compensation |
| Kenneth M Smith | CFO | $129,204 |
| Billy D Smith | CEO | $118,670 |
Compensation data as of: 7/31/2025
Response from ministry
No response has been provided by this ministry.
The information below was provided to MinistryWatch by the ministry itself. It was last updated 8/11/2026. To update the information below, please email: [email protected]
History
Chartered by the Commonwealth, 1849
Our oldest corporate root traces to 1849, when the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, at the request of Presbyterians, chartered an institution to protect, support, and instruct orphan and destitute children in and around Louisville. The Civil War divided the American Presbyterian Church into northern and southern streams, and in 1870 the Louisville orphanage was taken up by the Presbytery of Louisville, the Synod of Kentucky, and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. We are the inheritors of that "northern" stream of Presbyterian ministry to children.
The Mountain Mission and Reverend Murdoch, 1902
The second river rises in 1902 at Buckhorn, Kentucky, where Reverend Harvey S. Murdoch - a Brooklyn native and graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary - left the city for the headwaters of the Middle Fork of the Kentucky River. When asked why he would leave a comfortable pastorate for the isolated mountains of eastern Kentucky, he answered simply: "The need is greater there."
He did not arrive alone. He married Louise Saunders, native to the mountains, and together they built not a single institution but a whole community of care: a Presbyterian church now known as the Log Cathedral, a school called Witherspoon College, and an orphanage. Between 1903 and 1957, more than six thousand mountain children attended Witherspoon, fifteen hundred graduated, and the surrounding country was changed for generations. Murdoch's vision was that church, school, and home were not separate ministries but one ministry - and that vision is still recognizable in the way Buckhorn operates today.
In 1957, the school transferred to the Perry County Board of Education and continues today as the Buckhorn School, a K-12 public institution. The church and orphanage moved under the Synod of Kentucky as the Presbyterian Child Welfare Agency of Buckhorn, Kentucky, and in 1964 the Synod merged the Louisville and Buckhorn ministries into a single corporate body - the two streams of the work joined into one.
Held in Trust
We are the Presbyterian Child Welfare Agency of Buckhorn, Kentucky, Inc., doing business as Buckhorn Children and Family Services - chartered by an Act of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth in 1849, serving the mountains since 1902 - and we remain a Presbyterian ministry today, in active covenant with the Synod of Living Waters across Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee. What we hold, we hold in trust for the Church and for the children the Church has always called us to serve.
The Work Today
From our campuses in Buckhorn, Pine Ridge, Somerset, and Corbin, the work today spans residential treatment for children with serious mental and behavioral health needs, therapeutic foster care, family preservation and reunification, in'home services, and residential adult addiction recovery. Our mission, in the simplest words we know, is to provide a sanctuary of health, healing, and hope.