Hearcare Connection Inc

What it reported doing in 2024

Givehear (a dba of hearcare connection) was founded to eliminate the access gap for quality hearing healthcare available to the underserved in our community. Our program is unique and unduplicated by any other agency in northeast Indiana. Established in 2011, givehear has served over 10,000 patients across a diverse demographic. We are committed to growing our service reach to the underserved and implementing programs as needed to eliminate access deserts for needed audiology services. Programs: in 2024, givehear's clinics served 1,711 unique patients, acquired 1,147 new patients, and completed 3,302 total appointments. In 2024, givehear's goshen clinic added an audiometric booth and dedicated, local audiologist, making goshen a mirror clinic to the main office in fort wayne with respect to scope of services. Hearing assessment program: encompasses diagnostic assessment of hearing function using state-of-the-art equipment, which is appropriate for patients of any age and functional ability. Givehear receives assessment referrals from other area healthcare professionals, Indiana's early intervention program first steps, organizations assisting veterans, other nonprofit agencies, and by self-referral. Hearing aid rehabilitation program: encompasses the selection, fitting, follow-up, and maintenance of new or donated hearing AIDS. Patients qualify for this program according to adjusted household income and pay for a portion of their device cost based on our reduced sliding fee scale. Givehear fit 574 hearing AIDS in 2024. Circle of giving: givehear hearing aid recipients on our sliding fee scale complete a set number of volunteer service hours at a nonprofit agency within their community to give back via volunteerism. Because givehear relies on community support to execute our mission, our patients give back to the community that supports us and makes their hearing healthcare possible. Hearing aid donation program: we collect gently used hearing AIDS that can be reconditioned and reprogrammed for our patients. This program serves many of our hearing aid recipients and gives an opportunity for the community to rehome used hearing AIDS to our clinic. Newborn hearing program: provides affordable, price-capped follow-up diagnostic testing for babies who fail or do not receive a newborn hearing screening at birth. Using our highly specialized equipment, 164 babies were tested in 2024 through our partnerships with local hospitals, birthing centers, and midwives. School screening program: provides onsite hearing screenings, primarily preschool-aged children attending early education programs for low-income families and/or children with special needs. In an effort to identify hearing loss as early as possible, grant funded follow-up testing in our clinic is also offered for children who do not pass the onsite screening. Partnerships with brightpoint head start, public and private preschool programs, and lions club. Screened 868 children in 2024. Cancer treatment and hospice loaner programs: partnerships with cancer services of northeast Indiana, heartland hospice, and stillwater hospice allow us to provide hearing AIDS for patients undergoing cancer treatment or in hospice care. The loaned hearing AIDS foster improved communication with family, caregivers, and community. Served 5 patients in 2024. Givehear is unique. There are no other similar programs to ours in the region. Only a handful of similar programs exist nationally, some of which givehear helped develop at the request of those communities. The effects of undiagnosed and/or untreated hearing loss are significant, detrimental, and can be mitigated or eliminated with appropriate, quality hearing healthcare. Hearing AIDS are a highly effective, yet costly tool to counteract the negative impact of most hearing losses. They are designed to improve sound localization, listening in noisy situations, speech understanding, and provide better overall hearing. In fact, 80% of hearing loss

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 80.5%; rating input score 80
• Program expense ratio: 78.4%; rating input score 78
• Fundraising efficiency: $3.38 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 10; 10th 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: 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: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • 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: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

• Operating margin: -2.8%; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.51; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.8; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 9.3%; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 4.1% per year; rating input score 100; 38th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 9.6% per year; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 10.6% per year; rating input score 100; 61st percentile among comparable filings