The Children’s Guild
Legal name: The Children's Guild Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 520634411
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Jun 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Baltimore, MD, United States
- Phone
- 410.369.0106
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Children's, Youth Services
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $36,565,529
- Expenses
- $36,109,215
- Assets
- $22,409,821
- Liabilities
- $13,324,723
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
23 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JENNY LIVELLI (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER)
Highest reported compensation
- JENNY LIVELLI (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER): $402,427 total reported compensation
- SANAZ KUMAR (SCHOOL PSYCHIATRIST): $259,656 total reported compensation
- SAMUEL JOHNSON (CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER): $233,737 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 Children’s Guild provides individualized transformational experiences to ensure children, families, and communities thrive. & Vision OUR MISSION: The Children’s Guild** provides individualized **transformational experiences** to ensure children, families, and communities **thrive**. The Children’s Guild has become one of the largest providers of special education, group living, treatment foster care, and family mental health services in Maryland. The Children’s Guild has extensive experience in serving children and adolescents with trauma disorders, who have been traumatized by life experiences, or who have autism spectrum disorder and/or multiple disabilities; providing counseling, support, and educational services. The Children’s Guild is...
What it reported doing in 2024
The guild helps emotionally handicapped children and adolescents achieve their highest potential as individuals and as members of society through a comprehensive program of education and therapy and provides related counseling services for children and their families, all within a supportive multidisciplinary environment. The guild also establishes and provides facilities and opportunities for the study and improvement of emotional problems of children and adolescents.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Other-operating. 95% of the money available for current operations came from other operating 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: 78
- Transparency & Controls: 89
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 32
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 87%; rating input score 87
- Program expense ratio: 89%; rating input score 89
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
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: Missing
- Independent consultant: Pass
- 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 1.2%; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.62; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.59; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 5.8%; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 4.9% per year; rating input score 100; 41st percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 4.5% per year; rating input score 100; 40th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 7.5% per year; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: Mission, programs, and operating context captured from the official website.
- Where the money goes: 87% of revenue deployed · 89% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 13 of 13 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $32.1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $402K · 23 people listed · 5 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $2.3M reported
- Consistency: 34 of 35 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- 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: 10 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 5 filed related-organization links
- 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 — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 39/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 21/100.
- 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 44/100.