Center of Vocational Alternatives for Mental Health Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
311048452
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2013
Forms available
Form 990 2013
Location
Columbus, OH, USA
Phone
6142947117
Rating
86
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Sheltered Employment

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$3,046,957
Expenses
$3,422,820
Assets
$2,517,723
Liabilities
$1,220,846

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2013. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

14 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • JUDITH BRAUN (DIRECTOR): $126,429 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2013. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Cova's mission is to assist and support the community in overcoming mental, emotional and other challenges to a productive life, focusing on employment, economic stability and life skills.

What it reported doing in 2013

Transition youth services: cova's transition youth department works with youth and young adults ages 14-25 with mental, emotional and social barriers to transition to work and achieve independent living. Cova works with participants to navigate the daily aspects of living on their own, including setting up bank accounts, managing their finances, eating healthy, using community support networks and securing employment. Additionally, cova's youth specialists assist participants with securing housing, developing a plan for furthering their education and creating a career plan. In 2013, cova's youth specialists assisted approximately 300 young adults in franklin county toward becoming self-supporting, productive members of their community. 99% of students working with cova's choice program completed the required 120 hours of internship/community service activity in order to graduate for the 2013-14 school year. Our choice program provides vocational development services to identified students enrolled in a columbus city school who are classified as emotionally disturbed (ed). The goal of cova's renew program (a collaboration with cova, concord counseling center and syntero counseling) is to decrease the number of young adults, ages 18-25, returning to psychiatric hospitalization by providing them the necessary tools to be successful adults through therapy, case management and vocational services. For franklin county, the percentage of readmissions for this age group is 47%. In 2013, our renew program reduced hospital readmissions to (4 out of 118 participants) 3%.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 61% 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.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Revenue has declined or grown slowly and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 94
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 24
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 89.5%; rating input score 90
  • Fundraising efficiency: $32.42 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • 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; 65th 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: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -12.3%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.74; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.48; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 3.7%; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: -10.1% per year; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -9.5% per year; rating input score 0; 9th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 89.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 13 of 13 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $3.1M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $126K · 14 people listed
  • Consistency: 32 of 32 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2010 to 2013
  • 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.

Key Signals

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

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 8/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 35/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 29/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 58/100.
  • High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.