Tennessee Youth Courts Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
462839696
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2018–2025
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2017
Location
Nashville, TN, USA
Rating
92
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Human Service Organizations

Reported finances

Revenue
$40,772
Expenses
$42,332
Assets
$30,163
Liabilities
$723

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Denise D Bentley JD (Executive Director)
  • Donna Christian Lowe (President Board Chair)

People named in this filing

  • Denise D Bentley JD (Executive Director)
  • Donna Christian Lowe (President Board Chair)
  • Janet Meek (Treasurer)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Tennessee Youth Court TYC is a teen-driven juvenile delinquency prevention intervention diversion program based on restorative justice.

What it reported doing in 2025

TYC trains and empowers teen volunteers ages 13 -18 to hear cases of and develop consequences sentences for their peers first time offenders who have been charged with a low-level offense in a court-like inquiry. These programs operate across the state of Tennessee. In addition Tennessee Youth Courts Inc. started the implementation of youth court programs to address school conduct code violations in all zoned public high schools and a few zoned public middle schools in Metropolitan Nashville Davidson County Public Schools. Program implemented in the following MNPS schools: James Lawson High School Cane Ridge High School Antioch HIgh School Pearl-Cohn High School Maplewood High School Wright Middle School Dupont Hadley Middle School Antioch Middle Prep

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 95% 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. Program spending has declined or grown slowly and revenue has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 100
  • Transparency & Controls: 100
  • Sustainability: 31
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -3.8%; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.71; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 66.1%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -9.5% per year; rating input score 0; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -13.5% per year; rating input score 0; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -11.1% per year; rating input score 0; 16th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $42K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
  • Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 8 filing years from 2018 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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 — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 36/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 39/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 2/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 21/100.