Communities in Schools of the Charleston Area Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 570915384
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2020
- Forms available
- Form 990 2020
- Location
- North Charleston, SC, USA
- Phone
- 8437406793
- Rating
- 75
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Educational Services and Schools - Other
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $822,567
- Expenses
- $621,702
- Assets
- $0
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2020. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
14 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JAMIE COOPER (CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- JAMIE COOPER (CEO): $113,843 total reported compensation
- CIERRA SCOTT (VP OF FINANCE): $51,552 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2020. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Communities in schools (cis) of charleston serves approximately 8,000 students in 15 charleston and berkeley county schools, using an evidenced-based comprehensive approach to bring community services to students, their families, and schools. Through a process of integrated student supports and social emotional learning, cis is changing the opportunity equation for students throughout the lowcountry since 1989.
What it reported doing in 2020
Student support program: the student support program is designed to address the risk and protective factors that influence a child's academic success and the decision to remain in school. When a school partners with cis, it gains a liaison that focuses on bringing resources into the school to support the basic and behavioral needs that help allow children to learn and teachers to teach. Working with each school's administration, cis develops annual site plans that prioritize the support needs of the population. This support comes through the coordinated integration of community resources, as well as direct services provided by full-time cis student support specialists at each school. Cis specialists have, at minimum, a bachelor's degree in an education, social work, or counseling field and are provided ongoing professional development on how to educate and counsel students in life skills, anger management, healthy choices and goal setting. Those identified to be at the highest risk for not completing high school are case-managed by cis specialists and offered a wealth of scientifically proven protective services to counter the negative challenges they may face.
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
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 70
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 86
- Sustainability: 36
- Growth: 0
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 65.8%; rating input score 66
- Program expense ratio: 87%; rating input score 87
- Fundraising efficiency: $11.46 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 6 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- 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: 24.4%; rating input score 75; 75th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 26.6%; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -17.5% per year; rating input score 0; 4th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -6.2% per year; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -6.9% per year; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 65.8% of revenue deployed · 87% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 12 of 12 board members independent · 6 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $541K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $114K · 14 people listed
- Consistency: 21 of 21 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 11 filing years from 2009 to 2020
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 37/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 10/100.