Community Catalysts
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 815090376
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2018–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Jun 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-T 2021
- Location
- Howell, MI, US
- Phone
- 2316791258
- Rating
- 69
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Fund Raising and Fund Distribution
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $529,960
- Expenses
- $284,783
- Assets
- $4,208,018
- Liabilities
- $24,311
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- EILEEN ZILCH (PRES & CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- EILEEN ZILCH (PRES & CEO): $184,298 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Provide Funding for Affordable Housing | Consult and Partner on Affordable Housing and Services. Christy is deeply committed to community service. She serves on the Howell Public Schools Board of Education and is an active member of Rotary International, where she has been recognized as a Paul Harris Fellow. As a board member of Community Catalysts, she brings her experience in building strong teams, fostering collaboration, and strengthening organizations to support the mission of creating and restoring affordable housing. When she’s not working with clients or volunteering, Christy enjoys time with her family, connecting with friends, and supporting the people and communities around her. Sandie Cortez.
What it reported doing in 2025
Partnering for community development to support seniors, veterans, and homeless by funding quality affordable housing and services.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 68% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- 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
SUPPORTED - A large share of total spending goes to programs and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 60
- Transparency & Controls: 74
- Accountability: 83
- Sustainability: 77
- Growth: 40
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 51%; rating input score 51
- Program expense ratio: 79.2%; rating input score 79
- Fundraising efficiency: $16.73 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Pass
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 80%; rating input score 80; 21st percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
- 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: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 46.3%; rating input score 89; 89th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 14.78; rating input score 94; 94th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 64.7%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -11.9% per year; rating input score 0; 4th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 24.9% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -2.1% per year; rating input score 0; 10th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 51% of revenue deployed · 79.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 4 of 5 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $226K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $184K · 5 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 30 of 30 current checks pass
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 7 filing years from 2018 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 51/100.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 50/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Form 990 shared with the board not reported.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 1/100.