Mendocino County Fire Safe Council Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
830395685
IRS 990 coverage
2011–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2018
Location
Ukiah, CA, USA
Phone
7074623662
Rating
86
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Fire Prevention

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$3,569,409
Expenses
$3,113,269
Assets
$2,376,451
Liabilities
$712,167

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

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Scott Cratty (Executive Director)
  • Nancy Armstrong-Frost (President)
  • Joe Zicherman (Vice-President)
  • Sue Carberry (Vice President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Scott Cratty (Executive Director): $82,812 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

To inform, empower and mobilize county residents to survive and thrive in a wildfire-prone environment.

What it reported doing in 2024

EDUCATION and OUTREACH: MCFSC conducted outreach and education in support of wildfire preparedness and mitigation through convening and/or attending numerous community meetings, including 113 inter-agency coordination meetings, 56 local neighborhood Fire Safe Council meetings and 37 community events. MCFSC participated in radio interviews, issued print articles, and maintained a resource-rich website, blog and monthly newsletter. There are now over 1,677 subscribers to the newsletter, whose email version was opened 9,135 times this year. Our website has 17,396 users, and this year we recorded 76,645 Facebook hits, and 2,431 views of how-to videos on home-hardening and defensible-space clearing on the MCFSC YouTube channel. MCFSC provided $135,000 of micro-grants to local fire departments and Neighborhood Fire Safe Councils for small but key strategic local preparedness projects. MCFSC continued to partner with other agencies to plan and strategize for wildfire mitigation and preparedness projects. MCFSC hosts regular leadership meetings for its affiliated Neighborhood Fire Safe Councils, which grew last year to 81 countywide. MCFSC encouraged the Neighborhood Fire Safe Councils to obtain Firewise status, increasing the number of Firewise communities in the County from 4 to 14. MCFSC expanded its school outreach and education program in conjunction with the University of California Hopland Research and Extension Center to provide fire science and wildfire preparedness education to 5th grade through middle school ages. 711 students from 16 different schools participated in the program. MCFSC launched a new blog/podcast series with an initial 16 episodes and published new brochures, including two on wildfire smoke management. MCFSC also created and distributed 263 reflective address-number signs.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 82% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 95% 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. Total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 88
  • Transparency & Controls: 79
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 52
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 83.4%; rating input score 83
  • Program expense ratio: 95.5%; rating input score 96
  • Fundraising efficiency: $117.04 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 85.7%; rating input score 86; 1st percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 72.9%; rating input score 73; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • 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 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 12.8%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.76; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.3; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 2.7%; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 41.2% per year; rating input score 100; 96th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 26.9% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 26.6% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 83.4% of revenue deployed · 95.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $3M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $83K · 9 people listed
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $1.4M reported
  • Consistency: 43 of 45 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 7 filing years from 2011 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 13 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 9 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.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 28/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: CEO compensation review process not reported.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 34/100.