National Fire Safety Council Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 382292422
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2014–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2022
- Location
- Michigan Center, MI, USA
- Phone
- 5177642811
- Rating
- 63
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Standard
- Sector
- Fire Prevention
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $340,835
- Expenses
- $414,359
- Assets
- $3,718,622
- Liabilities
- $320,427
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- HARLEY J KAUFMAN (PRESIDENT/DI)
Highest reported compensation
- LISA CONWAY (SAFETY COUNS): $199,175 total reported compensation
- HARLEY J KAUFMAN (PRESIDENT/DI): $181,140 total reported compensation
- ELIZABETH PETRIE (SAFETY COUNS): $135,190 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 at national fire safety council, inc. (nfsc) is to prevent needless accidents and to help save lives by providing local fire departments with meaningful fire and burn prevention and life safety educational materials and programs for children, adults, and seniors. Nfsc leads the industry by providing approximately one thousand local fire departments across the u.s. Over 4 million pieces of safety material annually, many of which feature our child-firendly and non-threatening mascot, firepup. The council is proud to say that it has been a fire service partner since 1979.
What it reported doing in 2024
National fire safety council, inc. (nfsc) provided approximately 1,000 fire safety education programs in 33 states that reached over 1 million school aged children and their families in thousands of schools. The council develops and publishes fire and life safety educational materials and promotes education in association with local fire and life safety agencies throughout the united states.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 96% 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: 65
- Transparency & Controls: 67
- Accountability: 72
- Sustainability: 35
- Growth: 20
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 75.1%; rating input score 75
- Program expense ratio: 60.9%; rating input score 61
- Fundraising efficiency: $7.44 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th 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: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 66.7%; rating input score 67; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -21.6%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 8.97; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.09; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 148.9%; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -2.5% per year; rating input score 0; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -2.4% per year; rating input score 0; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 5.2% per year; rating input score 100; 48th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 75.1% of revenue deployed · 60.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 4 of 6 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $252K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $199K · 11 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 32 of 32 current checks pass
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes executive pay and related organizations
- Filing history: 11 filing years from 2014 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 6 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 31/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 13/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 9 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 27/100.