Mid-fairfield Child Guidance Center Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN: 060725052
IRS 990 coverage: 2010–2024
Forms available: Form 990 2024
Location: Norwalk, CT, USA
Phone: 2032991315
Rating: 78
Verdict: SUPPORTED
Rating confidence: Standard

Reported finances

Revenue: $8,300,439
Expenses: $7,600,091
Assets: $3,649,339
Liabilities: $1,136,377

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

Leadership & pay

17 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

ROY BERGER (PRESIDENT)
GAIL MELANSON (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
ALICE M FORRESTER (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER)

Highest reported compensation

ALICE M FORRESTER (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER): $252,258 total reported compensation
MARISSA MANGONE (DEVELOPMENT & COMMUNITY RELATIONS): $171,793 total reported compensation
GAIL MELANSON (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $158,429 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Our mission is to help all children with mental and behavioral health needs achieve emotional stability, academic success, and happy and productive lives.

What it reported doing in 2024

Outpatient children's clinic (opcc): offers individual, family, and group therapies; psychiatric services (evaluation and medication management); parent guidance and case management services. Children/adolescents (ages 5-19) receiving services in opcc suffer from a wide variety of symptoms and diagnoses (e.g., depression, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, etc.).prospects extended day treatment program ("edt"): provides intensive multi-model treatment for children and families whose needs cannot be adequately met through conventional outpatient treatment programs. Edt's comprhensive 6-month wrap-around model combines a 5-day after school program and a 5-day summer milieu program with a flexible schedule of individual, family, and group therapy, parent guidance and psychiatric services.child first: a national, evidence-based two generational model, that provides intensive home-based behavioral health services to children, birth through age 6, and their caregivers, as well as prenatal mothers. Interventions include home-based parental guidance, child-parent psychotherapeutic services, assessment and mental health consultation in early childcare and school settings, and assistance to connect families with community services and supports.system of care (ages 5-18): offers wrap-around care coordination and case management to families who have a child/adolescent with complex behavioral health needs that require support from multiple agencies and service providers. Wraparound services is a process by which a child, his/her family, and care coordinators assemble a team, identified by the family, to support the family while addressing a child's needs.early childhood consultation partnership ("eccp")(ages birth-5): an evidence-based early childhood mental health consultation program that provides services in a continuum of care to include center-wide services, classroom services, or individual child services. For each service, eccp seeks to build capacity through partnerships in order to meet the social, emotional, and/or behavioral needs of young children.

Operating model

Revenue model: Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
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 most voting board members are independent. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and some related-organization disclosures are missing.

Rating breakdown

Financial Efficiency: 80
Transparency & Controls: 62
Accountability: 100
Sustainability: 43
Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

Mission deployment rate: 76.8%; rating input score 77
Program expense ratio: 83.8%; rating input score 84
Fundraising efficiency: $61.8 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

Consistency checks: 94.1%; rating input score 94; 23rd 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: No; rating input score 0

Accountability

Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- 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: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

Operating margin: 8.4%; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.48; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.31; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
Officer compensation ratio: 5%; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

Program expense growth: 7.8% per year; rating input score 100; 54th percentile among comparable filings
Revenue growth: 7.8% per year; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings
Asset growth: 6.2% per year; rating input score 100; 41st percentile among comparable filings

Details

Where the money goes: 76.8% of revenue deployed · 83.8% of spending went to programs
Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $6.4M in reported program spending
Leadership: top reported pay $252K · 17 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
Consistency: 32 of 33 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
Contacts: How to reach this organization
Money network: 2 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.

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
High — Transparency & Controls: Related-party transparency scored 0/100.
High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 17/100.
Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 59/100.
Review — Transparency & Controls: Schedule R controlled transactions itemized did not reconcile in the filed values.
Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 33/100.
Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 53/100.
High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.