The Downtown Counseling Center Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
882415957
IRS 990 coverage
2023–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Charlottesville, VA, USA
Phone
4348723628
Rating
69
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Community Mental Health Center
Affiliation
Christianity

Reported finances

Revenue
$309,846
Expenses
$270,131
Assets
$62,180
Liabilities
$4,241

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

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • MARILU J THOMAS (EXECUTIVE DI): $78,429 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Vision: to be a means of grace in the community, so no one suffers alone. Mission: an initiative of christ episcopal church, the dcc provides excellent, affordable, and accessible psychotherapy, education, and community support in the charlottesville area. We achieve this by raising funds as a non-profit organization to offer greatly reduced rates to 20% of our caseload, extending a community rate to prevent burnout in the helping professions of charlottesville, and providing community education on mental health.

What it reported doing in 2025

Vision: to be a means of grace in the community, so no one suffers alone. Mission: an initiative of christ episcopal church in celebration of 200 years serving charlottesville, the downtown counseling center provides excellent, affordable and accessible psychotherapy as a community mental- health resource. As a non-profit, we provide support for reduced rates for students, seniors, and those who self-identify as needing aid. By prioritizing affordability and inclusivity for individuals, couples and families, regardless of their background or financial means, we are able to offer 20%+ of our caseload at reduced rate. We are grateful and appreciative of our generous individual donor funding of this dcc mission fund. Our program services include offering an eap package to community service staff such as the haven and helping the helpers rates for teachers, social workers, emts and medical personnel with high deductibles. We have referral relationships with the christian study center and the next steps program for uva students. In 2025, our team offered a parenting class in conjunction with christ church in the spring and a social-skills-building camp for children in the summer. The downtown counseling center increased capacity in 2025 with the additional of an intern to the staff. We look forward to continued creative innovation to meet the growing need for mental health access in our area.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 67% 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

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 63
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 74
  • Sustainability: 37
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 64.7%; rating input score 65
  • Program expense ratio: 74.2%; rating input score 74
  • Fundraising efficiency: $5.43 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings

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: 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: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 12.8%; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.23; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.07; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 29%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -2.9% per year; rating input score 0; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -8.1% per year; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -18.3% per year; rating input score 0; 3rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 64.7% of revenue deployed · 74.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 3 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $200K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $78K · 8 people listed
  • Consistency: 25 of 25 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 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.
  • 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.

  • Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 23/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 13/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 11/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 25/100.