The Cleveland Society for the Blind

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
340714652
IRS 990 coverage
2009–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Cleveland, OH, USA
Phone
2167918118
Rating
88
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Blind/Visually Impaired Centers

Reported finances

Revenue
$17,314,656
Expenses
$13,856,035
Assets
$180,712,266
Liabilities
$899,543

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

Leadership & pay

38 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • LARRY BENDERS (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER)

Highest reported compensation

  • LARRY BENDERS (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER): $469,998 total reported compensation
  • JUDITH L WEYBURNE (CHIEF OF CLIENT SERVICES): $207,571 total reported compensation
  • JASSEN RAMZI TAXIL (CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER): $203,377 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

To provide individualized support and tools to navigate the visual world.

What it reported doing in 2025

Recreation activities are designed to enhance overall well-being, independence, and confidence while providing opportunities to socialize and build community with others. Csc greatly increased recreational programming offered, ensuring individuals feel a sense of belonging and purpose, including all-day programming on tuesdays, educational presentations with guest speakers and a full summer program of field trips (331 clients served).csc provides assistive technology and other services, including retail sales of AIDS such as magnifiers, "talking" items, and large print accessories. The "eye-dea shop" retail store offers useful products to help people with vision loss live more safely and accomplish daily tasks with greater ease. Open to the public and online. (open year-round, serving > 1,000 clients). Braille and large print materials are produced and provided to individuals to read information needed for school, business, and leisure, staffed in part by volunteers trained by the library of congress. A radio reading service is provided through cleveland sight center's network ("cscn") broadcasting as a subcarrier of scpn 90.3, on wviz-tv channel 25.9, and on clevelandsightcenter.org. Csc also provides customized audio for client needs at home, school, and work.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 99% 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 reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 82
  • Transparency & Controls: 87
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 74
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 91.2%; rating input score 91
  • Program expense ratio: 84.3%; rating input score 84
  • Fundraising efficiency: $8.89 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Pass
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th 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: 20%; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 13.04; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 12.5%; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 4.1% per year; rating input score 100; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 3.6% per year; rating input score 100; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 5% per year; rating input score 100; 34th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 91.2% of revenue deployed · 84.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 29 of 29 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $11.7M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $470K · 38 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 34 of 34 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 9 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 15 filing years from 2009 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 9 filed money-flow records
  • 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 29/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 17/100.