Special Childrens Friends Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 010360872
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2015–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Ellsworth, ME, USA
- Phone
- 2076672430
- Rating
- 82
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Developmentally Disabled Centers
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $2,004,800
- Expenses
- $1,536,992
- Assets
- $2,877,865
- Liabilities
- $195,256
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
4 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- CATHERINE HAYNES FENTON (PRESIDENT)
People named in this filing
- CATHERINE HAYNES FENTON (PRESIDENT)
- KAREN SHEA (VICE PRESIDE)
- REBECCA STANLEY (SECRETARY)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Special children's friends provides programming to foster the healthy development of children with developmental challenges in partnership with their families and their communities.
What it reported doing in 2024
Case management services are provided for individuals with developmental challenges, autism spectrum disorders and mental health diagnosis from birth to age twenty-one. We have four full-time case managers who each carry a caseload of about 25 children. This number can fluctuate depending on the needs of the families. Case managers are available to attend meetings with families, advocate for them, go to doctor appointments with them, help them fill out forms or any other tasks that they may need assistance with. Their jobs are made more challenging because there are very few services available for families and children. Generally a child is put on a waitlist of some kind regardless of what the need is. This is frustrating for families and case managers, but they do their best to access whatever services are available.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 92% 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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 77
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 76
- Sustainability: 73
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 67.3%; rating input score 67
- Program expense ratio: 88.4%; rating input score 88
- Fundraising efficiency: $772.07 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 97; 97th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 3 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 43
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 23.3%; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.87; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.07; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 2.3% per year; rating input score 100; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 4.5% per year; rating input score 100; 37th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 13.7% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 67.3% of revenue deployed · 88.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 3 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $1.4M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 4 people listed
- Consistency: 26 of 26 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 9 filing years from 2015 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 6 not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 59/100.