Messy Family Project
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 830884341
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2019–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2018
- Location
- Steubenville, OH, USA
- Phone
- 7403140393
- Rating
- 65
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Roman Catholic
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $915,326
- Expenses
- $853,157
- Assets
- $308,789
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Michael Hernon (President)
- Alicia Hernon (Vice President)
Highest reported compensation
- Michael Hernon (President): $170,100 total reported compensation
- Alicia Hernon (Vice President): $125,118 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
See Schedule O.
What it reported doing in 2025
Forming Parents: The heart of the mission of the Messy Family Project is to form and encourage moms and dads in the essential work of raising children and building strong family cultures. Through our podcast, courses, workshops, parish events, and online resources, we provide practical tools, encouragement, and Catholic wisdom that parents can apply to their unique family situations. In 2025, our podcast received more than 350,000 downloads, our website served over 125,000 visitors, and more than 500 parents participated in our courses. We also continued to serve families through in-person workshops and events focused on strengthening parents as the primary leaders and formators of their children.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 78% 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 - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 62
- Transparency & Controls: 65
- Accountability: 68
- Sustainability: 39
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 66.1%; rating input score 66
- Program expense ratio: 70.8%; rating input score 71
- Fundraising efficiency: $4.63 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Missing
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 80%; rating input score 80; 21st percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- 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: 6.8%; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.36; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 34.6%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 20.8% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 21.5% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 23.2% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 66.1% of revenue deployed · 70.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 4 of 5 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $604K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $170K · 5 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 24 of 24 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 6 filing years from 2019 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 3 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.
- 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.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 14/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 18/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 49/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 6/100.