Massachusetts Housing & Shelter Alliance
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 223068653
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Boston, MA, USA
- Phone
- 6173676447
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Homeless Centers
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $23,878,981
- Expenses
- $23,960,233
- Assets
- $8,177,417
- Liabilities
- $5,748,929
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
25 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JOSEPH G FINN (PRESIDENT & CEO (UNTIL 2/25), DIRECTOR)
- JOYCE TAVON (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER)
Highest reported compensation
- JOYCE TAVON (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER): $210,953 total reported compensation
- JOSEPH G FINN (PRESIDENT & CEO (UNTIL 2/25), DIRECTOR): $210,356 total reported compensation
- THOMAS YOTTS (DIRECTOR OF FINANCE (UNTIL 1/25)): $132,835 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The Massachusetts housing & shelter alliance (mhsa) is a nonprofit, public policy advocacy organization dedicated to ending homelessness in Massachusetts.
What it reported doing in 2024
Advocacy, planning, and technical assistance - provides a forum in the commonwealth of Massachusetts for the planning and coordination of policy, community, and stakeholder education and communication of issues, and the piloting and implementation of housing and services for homeless individuals. Programs and advocacy are designed to end the commonwealth's reliance on emergency services for homeless individuals. The organization conducts site visits and program reviews to share best practices, provide technical assistance, and strive to create a network of resources and collaborative service providers. The organization conducts advocacy and planning to ensure that the state reduces its reliance on emergency services and focuses its efforts on permanent housing as a solution to homelessness.mhsa's advocacy, planning, and technical assistance work is a core priority of the organization. These activities are the primary responsibility for six full-time staff and significant contributions to this work are made by several additional staff. Given the close connection of this work to permanent supportive housing, functional expenses are generally reported under the latter.
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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
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 expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 95
- Transparency & Controls: 73
- Accountability: 87
- Sustainability: 26
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 96.8%; rating input score 97
- Program expense ratio: 96.3%; rating input score 96
- Fundraising efficiency: $84.02 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 83; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 94.4%; rating input score 94; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
- Compensation committee: Pass
- 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: 80%; rating input score 80; 16th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 94.4%; rating input score 94; 28th 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: -0.3%; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.34; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.7; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 3.8%; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 9% per year; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 8.7% per year; rating input score 100; 69th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 13.2% per year; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 96.8% of revenue deployed · 96.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 17 of 18 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $23.1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $211K · 25 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 36 of 37 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 10 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2011 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 9 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 3 filed related-organization links
- 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: 2 of 9 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 29/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 9/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 17/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.