Safe & Sound

What it reported doing in 2024

Strategic partnerships & policy - safe & sound's strategic partnerships & policy programming focuses on enhancing services for children and caregivers by establishing and strengthening partnerships across the city, and supporting research and policy advocacy at the local, state, and national levels. This includes supporting numerous policies and advocacy efforts that address critical issues including child abuse prevention and mandated reporter reforms. A key aspect of our efforts is leading the san francisco family services alliance, which brings together 40+ frcs and child-serving agencies that collectively support over 50,000 children and caregivers across the city. Through the family services alliance, safe & sound champions investment in frcs and actively advocates for budget allocations that significantly support family services. As a backbone organization, safe & sound plays a central role in the planning and implementation of initiatives like the family first prevention services act (ffpsa), collaborating with frcs and community-based organizations to provide essential upstream support for families and reduce involvement with the child welfare system. Safe & sound is also the backbone agency of the children's advocacy center of san francisco (cac), which facilitated 123 forensic interviews last year, where a multidisciplinary team of medical, mental health, law enforcement, and legal professionals are there to help children and families by providing a trauma-informed best-in-class single forensic interview and referrals to the follow-up care the child and family need to heal after cases of abuse. In 2024, the collective efforts of the team resulted in the engagement of 42 partnerships, and the enactment, adoption, or refinement of 19 agreements, policies, and procedures advocating for trauma-informed systems change to transform the child welfare system into a family and child well-being system that improves life trajectories and outcomes. In 2024, safe & sound's center for youth wellness concluded its work on the trauma-informed aces screening & intervention evaluation (tasie) project, underwritten by hrsa, an agency of the u.s. Department of health and human services, which studied our training model with enhanced learning technology, across several different healthcare settings. This project provided critical information to national healthcare leaders to determine how to best integrate an aces, toxic stress, and trauma-informed framework into pediatric primary care and how to effectively integrate screening and its results into patient healthcare management. The program extended its impact by training and supporting medical professionals, nonprofits, and community leaders in aces screening and effective interventions. Additionally, they collaborated with healthcare networks, drove awareness of the long-term effects of toxic stress, and advocated for equitable access to aces awareness and trauma-informed care through extensive partnerships and resource translation efforts. In 2024, the tasie project worked with 96 providers across 16 pediatric practices to screen 4,736 children across the u.s.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 96.4%; rating input score 96
• Program expense ratio: 80.5%; rating input score 80
• Fundraising efficiency: $8.55 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
  • Compensation committee: Missing
  • 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th 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: -19.7%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.5; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.07; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 14.8%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 11.9% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 6.9% per year; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 8.1% per year; rating input score 100; 55th percentile among comparable filings