Hear Center
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 952017214
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Pasadena, CA, USA
- Phone
- 6267962016
- Rating
- 74
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,023,026
- Expenses
- $903,317
- Assets
- $2,120,380
- Liabilities
- $800,533
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
14 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Armida Baylon (President)
- Marilou Ladines (Vice President)
Highest reported compensation
- Ellen Simon (Secretary/Exec. Director): $119,096 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
HEAR Center (the "Center") is a non-profit public benefit corporation dedicated to helping people at all stages of life be a part of the hearing and speaking world. The Center believes communication through speech and hearing is a vital ability that connects and empowers individuals - dramatically enhancing quality of life and opening doors to the world at large. Founded on the premise that everyone should have access to state-of-the-art and affordable care. Committed to serving as a center of excellence and compassion, the Center provides low or no-cost services for those who need them and is the only organization in Los Angeles County that goes out into the community to provide free specialized hearing and speech screenings.
What it reported doing in 2024
HEAR Center is a nonprofit hearing and speech clinic. We offer complete diagnostic audiological services, hearing aid dispensing, speech and language evaluations and therapy.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- 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 - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 65
- Transparency & Controls: 90
- Accountability: 75
- Sustainability: 56
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 69%; rating input score 69
- Program expense ratio: 77.4%; rating input score 77
- Fundraising efficiency: $2.53 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 7; 7th 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: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 24th 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: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 11.7%; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.35; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.38; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 13.2%; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -1.6% per year; rating input score 0; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 1.5% per year; rating input score 100; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 2% per year; rating input score 100; 25th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 69% of revenue deployed · 77.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 13 of 14 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $699K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $119K · 14 people listed
- Consistency: 25 of 25 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules
- Filing history: 12 filing years from 2009 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.
- 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: 4 of 8 not reported.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 7/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 20/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 27/100.