Spay Neuter Charlotte

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
273665227
IRS 990 coverage
2011–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Charlotte, NC, USA
Phone
7043752009
Rating
88
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Standard
Sector
Animal Protection and Welfare

Reported finances

Revenue
$5,703,397
Expenses
$5,750,771
Assets
$5,829,798
Liabilities
$2,713,226

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

Leadership & pay

17 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Cary Bernstein (executive director)

Highest reported compensation

  • Cary Bernstein (executive director): $150,000 total reported compensation
  • Abigail Beitel (employee): $141,263 total reported compensation
  • Jessica Nelson (employee): $109,131 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

The organization stands for every pet and pet owner by making the highest quality veterinary care and spay neuter services affordable and accessible, with the goal of reducing the number of dogs and cats euthanized in regional shelters and creating a community without homeless pets.

What it reported doing in 2024

In 2024 our practices continued to thrive from the perspective of demand for the services we provide. As we are the only low cost option in our region, building capacity to meet the needs of our clients is one of our greatest challenges. In the late summer we onboarded 4 new graduates from the veterinary school at NC State, a new senior veterinary clinician and a new medical director. While we were thrilled to have 6 new veterinarians, we also understood that all would need time to learn how to practice incremental medicine. This required that we reduce the number of available appointments, never a good situation for our clients or patients (short-term pain for long-term gain). Our medical assistant and administrative staff continues to be very stable. The majority of our team has been with the practice for 2-plus years. We know that this is in large part due to our emphasis on teamwork and our commitment to providing staff with exemplary compensation and benefits.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 91% 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 84
  • Transparency & Controls: 95
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 33
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 94.3%; rating input score 94
  • Program expense ratio: 93.4%; rating input score 93
  • Fundraising efficiency: $2.05 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 93.8%; rating input score 94; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • 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; 63rd 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: -0.8%; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.01; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.47; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 7%; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 14.2% per year; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 15.3% per year; rating input score 100; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 24.5% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 94.3% of revenue deployed · 93.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 14 of 14 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $5.4M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $150K · 17 people listed
  • Consistency: 27 of 28 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 13 filing years from 2011 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 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.

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 5/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 30/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 37/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 23/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 42/100.