Methodist Family Center Preschool
Legal name: Methodist Family Center Preschool Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 010713045
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Aug 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Darien, CT, US
- Phone
- 203.655.7407
- Rating
- 80
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Children's, Youth Services
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,059,109
- Expenses
- $880,326
- Assets
- $892,525
- Liabilities
- $625,844
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
13 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- DANIELLE CELAJ (EXECUTIVE DI): $72,090 total reported compensation
- KELLY PHELPS (ASSISTANT DI): $34,269 total reported compensation
- LISA ALFIERI (TEACHER REP.): $30,228 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Dedicated to the love of early childhood development, Methodist Family Center Preschool engages children in the joy of learning through play-based discovery in a creative, inclusive, and collaborative environment. I am excited to return for my third year as a 2s teacher at MFCP. I have built my career around teaching young children and am particularly loving my time with the 2s! I am always amazed by the development that happens during our year together and I strive to help support our youngest learners feel safe to explore, learn and grow. I have a master’s degree in elementary education from Manhattanville College. I taught K- 2nd grades at Marymount School in NYC before taking some time off to raise my young family. In my spare time, I love to play tennis and can often be found coaching or cheering on my kids from various sidelines around town. I look forward to the wonderful year...
What it reported doing in 2024
Creation of programs outside of the regular school curriculum such as extended days, lunch bunch, navigators, etc.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 92% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 75
- Transparency & Controls: 90
- Accountability: 77
- Sustainability: 50
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 78.1%; rating input score 78
- Program expense ratio: 95.9%; rating input score 96
- Fundraising efficiency: $0 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 4 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 44
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 16.9%; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.01; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.7; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 17.4%; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 3.7% per year; rating input score 100; 36th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 4.9% per year; rating input score 100; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 1.5% per year; rating input score 100; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 78.1% of revenue deployed · 95.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 4 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $844K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $72K · 13 people listed
- Consistency: 24 of 24 current checks pass
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules
- Filing history: 11 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 4 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 1/100.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 8 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 43/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 11/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 18/100.