Friends of the North Country Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
141626314
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Cadyville, NY, USA
Phone
5182935045
Rating
79
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Housing Development, Construction, Management

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,388,943
Expenses
$2,433,137
Assets
$1,011,743
Liabilities
$198,187

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

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • CRYSTAL NARDUCCI (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • CRYSTAL NARDUCCI (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $153,436 total reported compensation
  • ALLISON GARFIELD (FINANCE MANAGER): $108,216 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Provide the means for the economically disadvantaged to achieve decent, safe housing.

What it reported doing in 2024

See schedule o: housing assistance: staff counseled and/or assisted 210 consumers. This activity supports the delivery of a wide variety of housing counseling services to home buyers, homeowners, renters and the homeless. The primary objective of the program is to educate individuals and families to help them make informed decisions regarding the improvement of their housing status, to meet the responsibilities of homeownersihp and tenancy. Counselors help borrowers avoid high interestrate mortgages, unaffordable repayment terms, and other situations that can lead to loss of equity, increased debt, default, and foreclosure. Housing counselors distribute and provide a resource for fair housing and fair lending information. Counseling is provided through counselor-to-client assistance that addresses unique financial circumstances and housing issues, and focuses on overcoming specific obstacles to achieve housing goals such as repairing credit, addressing rental disputes, home purchase, down payment assistance, and raising awareness of critical housing, topics such as predatory lending practices, fair lending and fair housing requirements, finding units accessible for disabled persons, avoiding foreclosure, or resolving financial crises. Education is provided through formal classes with established curriculum and instructional goals - provided in a group or classroom setting, or other formats approved by hud covering topics including but not limited to: (1) renter right (2) the home buying process (3) home maintenance (4) budgeting (5) fair housing (6) identifying and reporting predatory lending practices (7) rights for persons with disabilities (8) and the importance of good credit. The housing counseling program is instrumental to achievement of friends mission.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 95% 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 expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 83
  • Transparency & Controls: 70
  • Accountability: 91
  • Sustainability: 25
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 94%; rating input score 94
  • Program expense ratio: 92.3%; rating input score 92
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • 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: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
    • 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: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -1.8%; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.42; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.2; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 10.8%; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 12.9% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 11.6% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 8.6% per year; rating input score 100; 53rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 94% of revenue deployed · 92.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $2.2M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $153K · 9 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 31 of 31 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 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.

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 9 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 27/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 14/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 28/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 44/100.
  • High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.