Make a Difference

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
352404984
IRS 990 coverage
2012–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2019, Form 990-N 2011
Location
Memphis, TN, USA
Phone
9013452444
Rating
82
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Alcohol, Drug Abuse, Treatment Only

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$331,686
Expenses
$285,461
Assets
$208,916
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

7 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Betty Lawson (Executive Director)

Highest reported compensation

  • Betty Lawson (Executive Director): $60,000 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Make A Difference, Inc. is a state licensed Intensive Outpatient Treatment Program designed to treat the critical needs (mental health and chemical addiction issues) of indigent and uninsured adults in need of intensive treatment on an outpatient basis. However, these individuals cannot afford to pay for such needed services. State grants such as CTC- Community Treatment Collaboration, ARP-Addiction Recovery Program, and COC - Continuum of Care make it possible to assist in meeting the needs of these indigent clients. Our treatment services include individual, group, family therapy, case management services, home monitoring, psychiatric evaluations by an MD Board Certified psychiatrist, medications, medication follow-up, transportation, housing assistance, as well as collaborating with other health agencies that provide medical, dental, and vision care to help meet the overall needs of our clients in the community.

What it reported doing in 2024

Continuum of Care (COC) Outpatient addiction treatment and mental health treatment. Clients learned about the illness of substance addiction and learned to prevent relapse. Clients also became stabilized and compliant with taking their psychotropic meds as a result. Relapse prevention, abstinence, and mental health stabilization for COC on an outpatient basis. The beneficial outcome of our program has helped clients become mentally stable, gain sobriety from a lifestyle of alcohol chemical addiction, get their GED or go back to school, become employed or get job promotions, elevate an individual's self-esteem, develop a sense of hopefulness, tell others about how they can benefit by participating in our program, etc. Additional funding is needed in order to meet the growing demands of our target population. More state federal funding would allow our agency to expand and create more programs that will prove to be even more beneficial to the clients we serve. We take pleasure in meeting the needs of our clients.

Operating model

Revenue model
Other-operating. 100% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
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

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filed totals do not add up and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 81
  • Transparency & Controls: 80
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 52
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 86.1%; rating input score 86
  • Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 88.9%; rating input score 89; 5th 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: 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: Pass
    • 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: 13.9%; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.73; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 21%; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 9.7% per year; rating input score 100; 69th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 8.2% per year; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 21% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 86.1% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 5 filed program accomplishments · $285K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $60K · 7 people listed
  • Consistency: 21 of 22 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 2 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2012 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.

  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 33/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 18/100.