Denver Early Childhood Council

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
273083665
IRS 990 coverage
2011–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Denver, CO, USA
Phone
3032971800
Rating
76
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Nonmonetary Support N.E.C.

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$4,126,257
Expenses
$3,711,880
Assets
$716,201
Liabilities
$429,234

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

Leadership & pay

11 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • SHELBY MATTINGLY (CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • SHELBY MATTINGLY (CEO): $157,548 total reported compensation
  • MAUREEN REID (CHIEF PROG OFFI): $99,473 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

The vision of denver's early childhood council (the "council") is that denver is a community where the diverse needs of all children and their families are supported. The council elevates the early childhood field through innovative and inclusive leadership, services and solutions. Our goal is to see that every young child across denver has access to quality child care, early learning, social-emotional supports and health services that help them enter school ready to succeed. We do this by helping caregivers, teachers, and others provide the highest quality services possible. We connect different aspects of the early childhood system to make sure policies and practices meet all growth and developmental needs of young children.

What it reported doing in 2024

CAREER PATHWAYS: The Career Coaching program played a pivotal role in addressing the challenges faced by early childhood professionals. It served as a significant resource for recruiting new talent into the field while also providing support to retain the existing workforce by working 1-1 with 538 individuals, with 80% of participants rating career coaching from the Council as imperative to the workforce. The Council continued to offer high-quality training for early childhood professionals, with a remarkable 70% surge in participation of professional development trainings compared to the previous fiscal year. This growth reflects the increasing demand for professional development opportunities among ECE providers and underscores the value of the Councils offerings in strengthening the early childhood workforce. The introduction of training programs in additional languages, such as Dari and Farsi, contributed to an 85% increase in non-English training sessions, broadening the reach of our services to a more diverse group of ECE professionals and fostering greater inclusivity within the community. The Conscious Discipline Training equipped educators with practical strategies for emotional regulation, conflict resolution, and classroom management, helping them create safe, supportive, and nurturing environments for children. That training alone served 488 participants with in-depth training courses and provided $70,000 worth of materials to 91 child care programs for educators to implement the strategies they learned during training. The Rocky Mountain Early Childhood Conference continued to be a hub of innovation, knowledge-sharing, and collaboration for professionals and advocates in the early childhood education field and served over 1,500 attendees with 154 sessions from 209 presenters. 96% would recommend RMECC to a friend or colleague and 87% of the attendees said the event met their expectations and professional goals.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 75% 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. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 79
  • Transparency & Controls: 65
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 38
  • Growth: 80

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 76.4%; rating input score 76
  • Program expense ratio: 84.9%; rating input score 85
  • Fundraising efficiency: $50.58 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Missing
  • 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: 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: 10%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.19; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.6; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 6.9%; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 0.9% per year; rating input score 100; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 4.6% per year; rating input score 100; 39th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -0.1% per year; rating input score 0; 12th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 76.4% of revenue deployed · 84.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $3.2M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $158K · 11 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $457K reported
  • Consistency: 26 of 26 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 13 filing years from 2011 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.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 5/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 17/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 42/100.