Albany Community Land Trust

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
222908723
IRS 990 coverage
2018–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Albany, NY, USA
Phone
5184261296
Rating
81
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Housing Development, Construction, Management

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,526,993
Expenses
$1,401,165
Assets
$3,745,849
Liabilities
$1,870,603

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • HERB MCLAUGHLIN (PRESIDENT)
  • NISHAEA RICHARDSON (VICE PRESIDENT)
  • SUSAN COTNER (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • SUSAN COTNER (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $8,000 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Preserve and maintain affordable housing for low income and disadvantaged individuals and families in albany, New York.

What it reported doing in 2024

Aclt's homeownership program involves the acquisition and renovation of a home before selling it to the homebuyer. Aclt uses financing and subsidies from a variety of sources to complete the rehabilitation. Aclt retains title to the land under land trust provisions. The land is then leased to the homebuyer for a nominal amount. Any future sale of the residence must be to another qualified homeowner or aclt retains the right to re-acquire the building at a purchase price specified in the land lease agreement. This ensures that the residence will be owned by an approved family that would have met the originally designated criteria for homeownership as designated under the program administered by aclt. As of december 31, 2024, 48 families have been helped by this program.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 69% for direct work, and 31% for grants.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 78
  • Transparency & Controls: 77
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 58
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 83.7%; rating input score 84
  • Program expense ratio: 93.8%; rating input score 94
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 49.6%; rating input score 50; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 8.2%; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.67; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.5; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0.6%; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 8.8% per year; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 7.2% per year; rating input score 100; 55th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 5.3% per year; rating input score 100; 40th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 83.7% of revenue deployed · 93.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $1.3M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $8K · 9 people listed
  • Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $211K reported
  • Consistency: 28 of 29 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 7 filing years from 2018 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 4 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 50/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Form 990 shared with the board not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 58/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 16/100.