Avenues to Community Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
392004618
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Fitchburg, WI, USA
Phone
6086638390
Rating
76
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Developmentally Disabled Centers

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$5,148,730
Expenses
$4,898,899
Assets
$1,114,951
Liabilities
$301,602

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • MICHELLE BAILEY GUTZMER (PRESIDENT)
  • KEVIN KEISLING (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • KEVIN KEISLING (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $185,829 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

To ensure people with disabilities have the opportunity to lead self-determined lives.

What it reported doing in 2025

Avenues to community has a contract with the dane county department of human services to provide case management to children who are eligible for the clts waiver. The clts waiver is available to children and youth under the age of 22 who have a diagnosis of an intellectual and/or developmental disability, physical disability, and/or mental health disability. To receive services in dane county, a child must be living in dane county and be eligible for medicaid. A child/youth must also be found eligible by meeting a level of care that is typically provided in a setting such as a hospital, nursing home, or institution for people with developmental disabilities. A screening tool known as the functional screen is used to determine a person's level of care.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 100% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
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

SUPPORTED - 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 total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 80
  • Transparency & Controls: 66
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 33
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 87.7%; rating input score 88
  • Program expense ratio: 92.3%; rating input score 92
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • 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: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 4.9%; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.23; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.27; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 3.8%; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 15.9% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 13.7% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 16.5% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 87.7% of revenue deployed · 92.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $4.5M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $186K · 8 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 25 of 25 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes executive pay
  • Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

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

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 7/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 42/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 29/100.