Council of Medical Specialty Societies
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 362868605
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Chicago, IL, USA
- Phone
- 2025397168
- Rating
- 75
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $13,836,018
- Expenses
- $13,287,262
- Assets
- $6,473,440
- Liabilities
- $3,330,194
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
18 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Patricia Turner MD (President)
- Clifford Hudis MD (President-Elect)
- Sue Sedory MA CAE (Past President)
- Michael Sheppard CPA CAE (Past President)
- Helen Burstin MD (CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- Helen Burstin MD (CEO): $741,207 total reported compensation
- Julia Peterson (Chief Operating Officer): $189,541 total reported compensation
- Sarah Imhoff (Senior Program Director): $184,714 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Supporting and strengthening member societies to address future challenges. Catalyzing improvement through convening, collaboration, collective voice and action across specialties. Providing a proactive platform to assess and address emerging and critical issues across specialty societies that influence the future of healthcare and the patients we serve.
What it reported doing in 2024
CMSS main purpose is to provide a forum for collaboration to influence the future of healthcare, medical education and accreditation from a broad, cross-specialty perspective. CMSS is the unified voice for specialty societies established to improve the US healthcare system and health of the public.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 75% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- Distribution model
- Grant intermediary. The nonprofit sent 77% of its reported program spending out as grants.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and most voting board members are independent. The filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 80
- Transparency & Controls: 58
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 33
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 89.1%; rating input score 89
- Program expense ratio: 92.8%; rating input score 93
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 10th 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: 5.8%; rating input score 6; 8th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- 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: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 4%; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.49; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.51; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 10.6%; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 34.7% per year; rating input score 100; 96th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 24% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 23.8% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 89.1% of revenue deployed · 92.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $12.3M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $741K · 18 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 33 of 34 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 13 filing years from 2011 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 16 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 11 filed related-organization links
- 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.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 6/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 15/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 50/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 18/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 28/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.