National Institute for Children's Health Quality Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
010647374
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Boston, MA, USA
Phone
6173912700
Rating
73
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Research Institutes and Public Policy Analysis

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$11,681,955
Expenses
$10,930,059
Assets
$9,587,567
Liabilities
$3,602,497

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

16 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • SCOTT D BERNS (CEO AND PRESIDENT (UNTIL 9/25))
  • HEIDI BROOKS (COO/INTERIM CEO AND PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • SCOTT D BERNS (CEO AND PRESIDENT (UNTIL 9/25)): $366,794 total reported compensation
  • HEIDI BROOKS (COO/INTERIM CEO AND PRESIDENT): $277,284 total reported compensation
  • REBECCA RUSSELL (VP, APPLIED RESEARCH AND EVALUATION): $218,161 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The purpose of the organization is to engage in educational and research activities for the improvement of children's health, including (1) research into effective methods of delivery and improvement of children's health (2) provision of educational services to clinicians and healthcare delivery organizations (3) working with physicians, health and healthcare organizations and federal, state and local governments and their agencies to improve quality management and delivery of children's healthcare (4) educating patients and consumers about children's health quality (5) developing educational materials, publications, online learning and meetings relating to improving children's health and reducing health disparities. The corporation is organized and operated exclusively for charitable, educational and scientific purposes.

What it reported doing in 2025

Capacity building, training and technical assistance: nichq provides capacity building, training and tailored technical assistance for partners in community-based, state, and national initiatives working to improve maternal and child health and reduce disparities in health outcomes. Nichq utilizes a variety of change management tools and frameworks to facilitate sustainable and impactful systems change, including quality improvement and implementation science. Our staff and expert faculty are available to consult on quality improvement and implementation science initiatives, including expert design and facilitation of breakthrough series learning collaboratives. Nichq staff and our cadre of renowned faculty and subject matter experts facilitate collaboration across sectors and disciplines. Nichq's work is rooted in engaging those most affected by health challenges and providing tailored support that reflects their needs and priorities. Research, data and evaluation services: nichq staff has expertise in qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches that are used to design and implement rigorous research, and evaluation approaches to capture measurable changes and impactful progress. In addition, nichq has an exclusive platform, the community, research, and analytics lab (coral), for tracking quality improvement measures and facilitating collaboration. This platform is specifically designed to enhance and strengthen system improvement efforts led by nichq. Dissemination and field building: nichq utilizes a wide variety of communication tools to disseminate results, lessons learned, and evidence-based best practices to advance the field of children's health. In addition to nichq's website and social media presence, nichq utilizes vehicles such as live and recorded webinars, on-demand learning, virtual toolkits and publications.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 76% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
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. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 64
  • Transparency & Controls: 74
  • Accountability: 93
  • Sustainability: 36
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 70.5%; rating input score 71
  • Program expense ratio: 75.2%; rating input score 75
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 87.5%; rating input score 88; 17th 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: 6.4%; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.88; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.38; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 14.7%; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 3.5% per year; rating input score 100; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 4.4% per year; rating input score 100; 35th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 9.8% per year; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 70.5% of revenue deployed · 75.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 8 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $8.2M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $367K · 16 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $1.3M reported
  • Consistency: 32 of 32 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 13 filing years from 2010 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 8 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • 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.

  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 49/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 25/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 12/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 35/100.