Center for Speech and Language Disorders

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
363018276
IRS 990 coverage
2016–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Lombard, IL, USA
Phone
6306520200
Rating
74
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,137,697
Expenses
$2,124,966
Assets
$385,696
Liabilities
$408,081

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

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • KARINE FADEN FIORE (PRESIDENT & CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • KARINE FADEN FIORE (PRESIDENT & CEO): $153,000 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

We increase access to speech-language services, removing systemic barriers to enable more equitable services and create communication justice.

What it reported doing in 2025

For 47 years, chat (communication health, advocacy & therapy) has given children in need the gift of communication. Focused on inclusion and centered in social justice, chat provides life-changing speech therapy to individuals with few - if any - other options. More than 80% of the students we serve come from low-income families, and over 70% are uninsured or on medicaid. Through our clinic, in schools, early intervention, and in partnership with community nonprofits, we help individuals harness their strengths while tailoring our services to their needs. We approach out work with deep cultural humility and understand the need for systemic change in healthcare and education so the people we serve can be more sustainably supported. We accept medicaid while many others don't and bring therapeutic programming into communities where they are needed. We work toward communication justice by serving under-resourced and neurodivergent individuals whose communication disorders and differences contribute to their inequitable treatment, including in the criminal legal system, and by working to remove structural barriers to access.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 90% 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 most voting board members are independent. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 74
  • Transparency & Controls: 65
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 21
  • Growth: 80

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 83.3%; rating input score 83
  • Program expense ratio: 83.8%; rating input score 84
  • Fundraising efficiency: $1.39 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Missing
  • 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • 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: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 0.6%; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.18; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 1.06; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 7.2%; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 7.5% per year; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 5.5% per year; rating input score 100; 41st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -9.1% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 83.3% of revenue deployed · 83.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.8M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $153K · 9 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 30 of 30 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 9 filing years from 2016 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.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 3/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 29/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 5/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 2/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 44/100.