The Center for Local Government
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 311305568
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Cincinnati, OH, USA
- Phone
- 5137417999
- Rating
- 88
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Economic Development
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $292,601
- Expenses
- $300,347
- Assets
- $622,267
- Liabilities
- $7,650
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Mike Thonnerieux (President)
- Jim Lukas (Vice President)
People named in this filing
- Mike Thonnerieux (President)
- Jim Lukas (Vice President)
- Vicky Earhart (SecTreas)
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 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The Center for Local Government uses many different programs to achieve our mission. We strive to build relationships among governments in the Greater Cincinnati and Dayton regions by Connecting them via our Spot Surveys, Payroll Administrator Forums, and other programs. We work to enhance Collaboration through our Health Insurance Pool, Public Works Mutual Aid Pact (PWMA) and other collaborative efforts. Finally, we endeavor to Coach our members by developing programs such as our Justified Use of Force Simulator (JUFS) for police departments, and our Leadership Academy that brings in subject matter experts to train local government personnel.
What it reported doing in 2025
Providing education and training programs, survey services, and other services to enable members to collaborate and improve service delivery.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Membership-supported. 84% of the money available for current operations came from membership dues.
- 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 expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 83
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Accountability: 88
- Sustainability: 44
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 95%; rating input score 95
- Program expense ratio: 92.3%; rating input score 92
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 5 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 71
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- 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: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -2.6%; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.07; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 3.9% per year; rating input score 100; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 1% per year; rating input score 100; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 3.4% per year; rating input score 100; 37th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 22 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 3 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 95% of revenue deployed · 92.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 5 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $277K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
- Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- 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.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 29/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 38/100.