Public Children Services Association of Ohio

Overview

Mission

PCSAO is a membership-driven association of Ohio’s county Public Children Services Agencies that advocates for sound public policy, promotes program excellence, and builds public value for safe children, stable families, and supportive communities. Dan Schneider, former director of the Knox County Department of Human Services, was hired as the Association’s first full-time executive director. With staff in place, the Association expanded its efforts to support counties and advocate for children and families in the public policy arena, including: financial management and media manuals, workload studies, new county executives orientation, levy campaign consultation, and a variety of training, consultation, and technical assistance offerings to assist policy implementation in the counties. 1990 Crystal Ward Allen, then a graduate student on field placement with PCSAO, researched and...

Operating model

Revenue model

Grant-funded. 68% 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.

• Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

• Financial Efficiency: 83
• Transparency & Controls: 89
• Accountability: 95
• Sustainability: 32
• Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Details

• What they do: 3 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
• Where the money goes: 93.7% of revenue deployed · 93.5% of spending went to programs
• Governance: 16 of 16 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
• Programs: 5 filed program accomplishments · $4.5M in reported program spending
• Leadership: top reported pay $210K · 22 people listed · 5 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
• Highest-paid contractors: 3 contractors listed · $574K reported
• Consistency: 32 of 32 current checks pass
• Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
• Filing history: 16 filing years from 2010 to 2025
• Contacts: How to reach this organization
• Money network: 5 filed money-flow records
• 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 — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 27/100.
• Review — Accountability: Governance controls: CEO compensation review process not reported.
• Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 49/100.
• High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 20/100.
• High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 24/100.