The Community Development Society
Overview
Mission
Strengthen and advance community development policy, practice, learning, and research through educational and scientific means.
What it reported doing in 2025
Provide development and educational services for the benefit of members and their communities through an annual conference, meetings, journals and online publications.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 75% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The nonprofit carried out 97% of its reported program work directly.
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 237074712
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Headquarters
- Columbia, MO, USA
- Rating
- 86
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Public, Societal Benefit
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and the filing reports that some governance safeguards are missing.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 80
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 46
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 77.8%; rating input score 78
- Program expense ratio: 82.3%; rating input score 82
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
- Public monitoring controls: Limited
- Public policy transparency: Limited
- Public financial transparency: Limited
- Impact reporting controls: Limited
- Public relationship transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- Public governance controls: Limited
- Zakat policy transparency: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 5.5%; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
- Operating reserve ratio: 2; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 47.5%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 16% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 18.1% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -2.3% per year; rating input score 0; 15th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 77.8% of revenue deployed · 82.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $154K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $89K · 13 people listed
- Consistency: 23 of 23 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes grants
- Filing history: 5 annual filings from 2020 to 2025
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record