Cortland Free Library

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
150569362
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Cortland, NY, USA
Phone
6077531042
Rating
78
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,141,712
Expenses
$693,187
Assets
$6,837,120
Liabilities
$357,698

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

17 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • JOHN HOESCHELE (Vice President)
  • LAUREN MOSSOTTI-KLINE (President)

Highest reported compensation

  • JESSICA MAGELANER (LIBRARYDIRECTOR): $30,000 total reported compensation
  • JEN GRANEY (FORMER DIRECTOR): $21,879 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Providing information, materials, and programs that educate, inspire, enrich, entertain and inform; promoting the tools, skills, and techniques for literacy development, language skill acquisition, lifelong learning, recreation, and research.

What it reported doing in 2024

Association library services and programs provided, including the loan of approximately 90,000 catalogued items to 9,800 registered borrowers in the local area.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 80% 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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and some filed totals do not add up.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 65
  • Transparency & Controls: 83
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 80
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 66.6%; rating input score 67
  • Program expense ratio: 83.2%; rating input score 83
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 12th 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 39.3%; rating input score 89; 89th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 9.86; rating input score 92; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 7.5%; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 3% per year; rating input score 100; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 0.2% per year; rating input score 100; 16th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 3.3% per year; rating input score 100; 31st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 66.6% of revenue deployed · 83.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 14 of 14 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $577K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $30K · 17 people listed
  • Consistency: 21 of 22 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • 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: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 45/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 51/100.