National Safe Place Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
204343628
IRS 990 coverage
2012–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Louisville, KY, USA
Phone
5026353660
Rating
69
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Standard
Sector
Children's, Youth Services

Reported finances

Revenue
$887,041
Expenses
$858,483
Assets
$284,833
Liabilities
$253,550

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

Leadership & pay

17 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Gary Cobbs (President / CEO)
  • Laurie Padilla (Executive Director)

Highest reported compensation

  • Gary Cobbs (President / CEO): $448,987 total reported compensation
  • Joshua Zimmerman (VP of Finance/CFO): $173,500 total reported compensation
  • Laurie Padilla (Executive Director): $155,628 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

National Safe Place Network licenses and offers support to affiliate Safe Place agencies so they can provide access to immediate help and supportive resources for all young people in crisis through a network of sites sustained by qualified agencies, trained volunteers and businesses. Additionally, NSPN provides services to member agencies such as online training, grant reviewing assistance, middle managers and executive leadership training, etc.

What it reported doing in 2025

Nspn works with agencies and communities across the united states to implement the safe place program on a local level. The program utilizes public and private partnerships at the local level to create safe locations where youth can go when in crisis and in need of safety. Local communities provide outreach education, immediate response, shelter and related services to these youth and their families. Nspn provides additional trademarked materials, awareness campaigns, training opportunities and assistance to communities implementing this program. Additional safe place models available to communities include transit, first responder and txt 4 help models. There are nearly 22,000 safe place sites where youth can get help across the united states, with more being added every day. Nspn also offers txt 4 help programs for youth to get connected via text messaging to the closest safe place location and/or connect immediately with a masters' level mental health professional for assistance. Each year hundreds of thousands of youth and adults are educated about the safe place and txt 4 help programs and thousands of youth receive help and services at safe place sites or via phone connections to safe place agencies. Txt 4 help continues to see large increases in the number of texting interactions with youth in crisis. National safe place network (nspn) offers unique member services designed to meet the needs of agencies serving youth and families across the united states by providing quality services to support youth service organizations and their staff in ways that make sense for the community and organization. Since 1977, nspn has provided quality services to support youth service organizations and their staff through organizational and professional development, as well as on-site and online training. These services are highly regarded by the members and include critical items as child and youth worker certification, emerging leadership training and pre-submission grant proposal reviews. One of the things that sets nspn membership apart from other association options is the networks commitment to work in partnership with each member to create a plan for addressing agency needs while providing opportunities for them to share what they do best with other members of the network. Nspn's motto "together we can" is the driving force behind all the network does to support youth, families, and communities.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 69% 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 most voting board members are independent. 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: 70
  • Transparency & Controls: 65
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 28
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 74.9%; rating input score 75
  • Program expense ratio: 76.5%; rating input score 77
  • Fundraising efficiency: $6.31 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 22nd 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th 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: 3.2%; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.33; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.89; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 12.1%; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -11.1% per year; rating input score 0; 4th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -8% per year; rating input score 0; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -8.5% per year; rating input score 0; 4th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 74.9% of revenue deployed · 76.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 14 of 14 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $657K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $449K · 17 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 27 of 28 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 14 filing years from 2012 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • Related organizations: 2 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.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 21/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 40/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 17/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Schedule R controlled transactions itemized did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 5/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 31/100.