Austin Childcare Providers Network

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
364395447
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2019
Location
Chicago, IL, USA
Phone
7739340786
Rating
80
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Children's, Youth Services

Reported finances

Revenue
$492,032
Expenses
$458,676
Assets
$539,310
Liabilities
$72,116

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

Leadership & pay

10 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Andrew Born (Vice President)
  • Ruth Kimble (Executive Director)

Highest reported compensation

  • Ruth Kimble (Executive Director): $74,500 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

ACPN empowers early childcare providers in Austin to create engaging early learning environments and develop sustainable businesses.

What it reported doing in 2024

ExceleRate Pilot - The Illinois ExceleRate system incentivizes childcare programs to work on continuous quality improvement of programs, by directors and program staff increasing their higher education credentials/degrees and conducting program self-assessments. ACPN has initiated a pilot to work with a cohort of ten providers to increase their ExceleRate level from Bronze to Silver. The pilot will work on individualizing training and coaching of each provider to identify areas of improvement, to create an individual/program plan that works on the areas of improvement and provide training and coaching to support added program quality standards. The pilot will work with the cohort for a year.These three initiatives target the early childhood providers in our community to increase their knowledge and skills. These three initiatives address aspects of the early childhood workforce: The AECC project provides opportunities for individual childcare providers to complete their GED and/or begin their higher education journey to attain an Associate degree or Infant/Toddler credential. The ExceleRate Pilot works on improving the quality of the community's early childcare programs. The C2K pilot specifically targets preparing childcare providers to increase the ability of preschool children to be kindergarten ready and to successfully transition to kindergarten.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 75
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 77
  • Sustainability: 44
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 74.4%; rating input score 74
  • Program expense ratio: 79.8%; rating input score 80
  • Fundraising efficiency: $28.18 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings

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: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 87.5%; rating input score 88; 24th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 6.8%; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.18; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.13; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 16.2%; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 18.2% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 14.4% per year; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 13.3% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 74.4% of revenue deployed · 79.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 8 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $366K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $74K · 10 people listed
  • Consistency: 31 of 31 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 13 filing years from 2010 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 54/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 45/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 24/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 23/100.