Durango Early Learning Center Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
840852955
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Durango, CO, USA
Rating
85
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate

Reported finances

Revenue
$821,623
Expenses
$760,136
Assets
$1,081,883
Liabilities
$30,827

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

Leadership & pay

10 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Rebecca S Trefry (Executive Director)
  • Molly Pagano (Vice President)
  • Paige DeNier (President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Rebecca S Trefry (Executive Director): $72,666 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Nurturing child development in partnership with families of diverse backgrounds.

What it reported doing in 2024

During the 2024.2025 school year, Durango Early Learning Center (DELC) provided over $15,000 in tuition assistance. DELC continued to participate as a universal preschool provider, where 21% of our families received universal preschool funding for 15 hours a week of child care. DELC also raised $17,307 during the Colorado Gives Day campaign. DELC has maintained a high quality rating of 4 with Colorado Shines DELC believes that families should be active participants in their childs first formal educational experience and DELC feels that education is a collaboration between children, families, the school and the larger community. DELC families have volunteered over 580 hours to support the education of all children at the Center. In FY 2024 DELC launched a new playground initative with the understanding of the vital need for safe, accessible, and natural outdoor learning spaces where children can thrive. By offering a space that is both accessible and rooted in nature, we ensure that every child has the opportunity to develop essential cognitive, emotional, and physical skills in a nurturing and engaging setting. The current playground, installed in 1978 for an elementary school, no longer serves the needs of our preschool community. Our Board of Directors has allocated $70,000 of unrestricted funds to the project, and has since rasied $230,298, or 76% of the total playrground budget.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 80% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 93% 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

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 fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 84
  • Transparency & Controls: 94
  • Accountability: 79
  • Sustainability: 54
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 85.4%; rating input score 85
  • Program expense ratio: 92.1%; rating input score 92
  • Fundraising efficiency: $18.72 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 57; 57th 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; 76th 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: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 7.5%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.42; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 9.6%; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 6.3% per year; rating input score 100; 49th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 5% per year; rating input score 100; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 1.1% per year; rating input score 100; 22nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 85.4% of revenue deployed · 92.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $700K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $73K · 10 people listed
  • Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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: 3 of 7 not reported.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 57/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 56/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 54/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 38/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 59/100.