Community Mediation Minnesota
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 822395363
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2019
- Location
- Minneapolis, MN, USA
- Phone
- 8332662663
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Legal Services
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,522,809
- Expenses
- $1,461,778
- Assets
- $366,944
- Liabilities
- $155,017
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
16 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- AIMEE GOURLAY (CO-PRESIDENT)
- JOHN THOMPSON (CO-PRESIDENT)
- KATIE ARNOLD (CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
- AJ AWED (CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- AJ AWED (CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $79,436 total reported compensation
- KATIE ARNOLD (CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $58,954 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Community mediation Minnesota is a statewide network of certified nonprofit service providers with skilled mediators, facilitators and circle keepers who are available to assist minnesotans caught in conflicts they're ready to resolve. Through a variety of constructive services, cmm helps individuals, groups, and even whole communities discover better paths forward, together. Cmm also serves as an active network of alternative dispute resolution and restorative practices training organizations.
What it reported doing in 2024
Community mediation Minnesota supports the work of local, state-certified community dispute resolution programs (cdrps) and works toward a vision of all minnesotans having access to services provided by cdrps. In fy2025 cmm secured referrals and funding streams that passed through to the cdrps. In addition, cmm continued to support remote services - from a remote workplace - through continued implementation of a shared online case management system, online dispute resolution services, and utilization of a statewide centralized intake and referral infrastructure. In fy2025, cmm completed a contract extension for one contract/grant with Minnesota housing finance agency (mhfa). This grant extension ran from july 1, 2024 to january 30, 2025 and originated from funds that mhfa received from the us department of treasury for housing stability services (hss) through emergency rental assistance 2 (era2). Services through this grant include housing mediation and navigation services that occurred before, during, and after the eviction process. During this time period, we served 1031 households that included 2682 individuals. In august of 2024 cmm received the amicus curiae award for Minnesota's 1st judicial district in recognition of "exemplary service and the significant contribution" the work has "made to the administration of justice" through this housing grant. In august of 2024, cmm also executed their contract for the stable housing mediation (shm) grant that is legislative appropriation administered by the mhfa. The shm grant began to replace hss as the primary funding source for our housing work in february of 2025. Due to issues with sunsetting of our case management system in february of 2025 and replacement with a new case management system transition, data for people served through shm from february-june of 2025 was unable to be aggregated with accuracy. However, it is estimated that 418 rental households and 46 rental property providers received services through this grant from april through june of 2025. Community mediation Minnesota also continued to receive funding from the legal services advisory committee (lsac) to support cmm staff salaries and benefits for executive director/s along with contracted support. In addition, a portion of the lsac funds passed through to the cdrps to strengthen mediation service availability throughout the state of Minnesota for court and community-based alternative dispute resolution (adr) for conciliation, housing, family, and harassment courts and other restorative justice practices. To support this work, cmm provides a statewide centralized intake system that refers cases to the cdrps. For fy205, cmm referred 548 cases to the cdrps. Cmm provides mediation training and in fy2025, trained 44 people total in two 30-hour civil mediation, two 40-hour family mediation and one elder mediation training.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 92% 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
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and program spending has declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 87
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 71
- Sustainability: 32
- Growth: 0
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 87.4%; rating input score 87
- Program expense ratio: 91%; rating input score 91
- Fundraising efficiency: $36.3 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 72; 72nd 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: 50%; rating input score 50; 11th 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: 4%; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.25; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.42; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 9.5%; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -19.6% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -15.9% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -48.3% per year; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 87.4% of revenue deployed · 91% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 7 of 14 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.3M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $79K · 16 people listed
- Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2020 to 2024
- 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.
- Review — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 50/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 12/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 47/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 19/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 39/100.