Merlin Mediation Counseling & Consulting
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 471479303
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2015–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2024
- Location
- Helena, MT, USA
- Phone
- 4065022122
- Rating
- 71
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Family Counseling
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $112,740
- Expenses
- $68,168
- Assets
- $49,625
- Liabilities
- $1,948
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
6 people listed
People named in this filing
- Marisa Diaz-Waian (Executive Dir.)
- Mike McGuire (Director)
- Jo Young (Director)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The organization exists to create, develop, and offer a wide range of unique and accessible opportunities for people to enjoy the fun and joy of doing philosophy together and the transformative ways that philosophy can improve and enhance our lives in practical, empowering, and meaningful ways. Our programs are free to the public and support critical, creative thinking, the exchange of ideas, and the application of philosophy to everyday life. More broadly, they are opportunities for people of all backgrounds and ages to gather, to learn from and with one another, and to uniquely cultivate their personal and civic selves.
What it reported doing in 2025
Enriching lives and strengthening community through philosophy.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 94% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- 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 program spending has grown recently. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 46
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 62
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 36.6%; rating input score 37
- Program expense ratio: 60.4%; rating input score 60
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 39.5%; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.73; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 8.8%; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 14.9% per year; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 17.9% per year; rating input score 100; 79th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 15.9% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 36.6% of revenue deployed · 60.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $41K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 6 people listed
- Consistency: 7 of 7 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2015 to 2025
- 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 37/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 49/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 22/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 27/100.