Sound Child Care Solutions

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN: 020551791
IRS 990 coverage: 2009–2024
Forms available: Form 990 2024
Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Phone: 2064207165
Rating: 86
Verdict: STRONG
Rating confidence: Moderate
Sector: Kindergarten, Preschool, Nursery School, Early Admissions

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue: $10,516,517
Expenses: $10,801,441
Assets: $5,916,436
Liabilities: $2,244,343

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

15 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

AMRUTA MANE (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

LUZ CASIO (DIRECTOR FOR 1 CENTER): $175,918 total reported compensation
CASSIE WORLEY (DIRECTOR FOR 1 CENTER): $175,791 total reported compensation
KARINA ROJAS-RODRIGUEZ (DIRECTOR FOR 1 CENTER): $175,618 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Create high quality, culturally relevant education for all children through the collaboration of early learning centers.

What it reported doing in 2024

Founded in 2006, sound child care solutions (sccs) is the first early learning, shared services organization of its kind in seattle. Our programs share administrative and financial support in a central office so that center directors can focus on supporting teachers and developing high quality, culturally relevant programming and services for children and families. Sccs started with one early learning center and now, we operate 10 centers with 11 programs, serving 450 children. Each center is unique to the needs of their community. We ensure that children of color as a group and within ethnic and racial subgroups, are achieving at the same level as white children, and that there are no outcome differences across income levels.

Operating model

Revenue model: Earned-program. 61% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
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

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 total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

Financial Efficiency: 89
Transparency & Controls: 89
Accountability: 88
Sustainability: 22
Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

Mission deployment rate: 92.3%; rating input score 92
Program expense ratio: 89.9%; rating input score 90
Fundraising efficiency: $31.48 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
Pay-setting controls: 5 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 83
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Pass
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- 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; 20th percentile among comparable filings
Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- 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: -2.7%; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.55; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.38; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
Officer compensation ratio: 10.6%; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

Program expense growth: 6.6% per year; rating input score 100; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
Revenue growth: 7.9% per year; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings
Asset growth: 14.1% per year; rating input score 100; 79th percentile among comparable filings

Details

Where the money goes: 92.3% of revenue deployed · 89.9% of spending went to programs
Governance: 7 of 8 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $9.7M in reported program spending
Leadership: top reported pay $176K · 15 people listed · 5 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
Consistency: 33 of 33 current checks pass
Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
Filing history: 16 filing years from 2009 to 2024
Contacts: How to reach this organization
Money network: 8 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.
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.

High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 22/100.
High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 18/100.
Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 18/100.
Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 39/100.