Dions Chicago Dream Inc Nfp
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 852527687
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2021–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2020
- Location
- Chicago, IL, USA
- Phone
- 3127190215
- Rating
- 83
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Food Programs
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $6,053,528
- Expenses
- $4,818,846
- Assets
- $2,698,939
- Liabilities
- $526,227
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- CRYSTAL DAWSON (PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- DION TREVOR DAWSON (FOUNDER & CE): $115,000 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To provide food, information and resources to the west englewood community on the south side of chicago, il. Our goal is to also increase financial and emotional stability to its residents while combating food insecurity, hunger and addressing our neighborhood's food desert status.
What it reported doing in 2024
Food is medicine: the produce prescription program rationale: health experts are increasingly realizing that food can be the best medicine and that the medical system itself can be used to expand food distribution. As the most advanced food aid logistics provider in the chicagoland region, dion's chicago dream has become the go-to partner for produce prescription programs, allowing the distribution of produce boxes to medicaid-eligible households throughout the region. The program can scale rapidly and widely because medicaid funds most of the costs connected to food purchase and delivery. Impact: dion's chicago dream's produce prescriptions currently serve more than 800 patients throughout cook county, and we are expecting to more than double that with an increase to 2,000 weekly patients in the next 6 months. We also bring over 400 boxes a month to sign-up events, where people can sign up to participate in the produce prescription program. Our partner foodsmart shows evaluation statistics for its version of this program: ?33% of participants are able to sustain a 5% weight loss over 24 months ?39% of participants are able to reverse diabetes after 24 months ?36% of participants with high cholesterol lowered their lipid values to normal
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 60% 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
STRONG - 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 total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 73
- Transparency & Controls: 94
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 56
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 65.4%; rating input score 65
- Program expense ratio: 82.1%; rating input score 82
- Fundraising efficiency: $117.5 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 88; 88th 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 20.4%; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.56; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.19; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 2.4%; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 69.4% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 67.1% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 76.4% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 65.4% of revenue deployed · 82.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $4M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $115K · 5 people listed
- Consistency: 31 of 31 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2021 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 20/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 45/100.