Beginnings for Parents of Children Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 460605246
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2016–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2014
- Location
- West Columbia, SC, USA
- Phone
- 8032161171
- Rating
- 80
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Breast Cancer
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $417,515
- Expenses
- $443,214
- Assets
- $95,037
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- REBECCA WILLIAMS-AGEE (PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- PRESTON TRIPPE (EXECUTIVE DI): $72,893 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The mission of beginnings sc is to provide emotional, informational, and technical support to the parents of children who are deaf or hard of hearing, deaf parents with hearing children, and professionals serving those families. Beginnings sc assists parents of children from birth through age 21 by providing information and support that will empower them as informed decision makers, helping them access the services they need for their children, and promoting early identification of hearing loss and awareness of early intervention programs. Beginnings sc believes that given accurate, objective information about hearing loss, parents can make sound decisions for their children about educational placement, communication methodology, and related needs.
What it reported doing in 2025
Provides services to families with deaf or hard of hearing children.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 90% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
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: 78
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 74
- Sustainability: 27
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 89.8%; rating input score 90
- Program expense ratio: 84.6%; rating input score 85
- 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: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -6.2%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.21; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 16.4%; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 5% per year; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 8.5% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 6% per year; rating input score 100; 49th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 89.8% of revenue deployed · 84.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 3 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $375K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $73K · 10 people listed
- Consistency: 25 of 25 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 8 filing years from 2016 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
- 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.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 7 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 24/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 13/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 22/100.