The Haven Project Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
453797693
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2020
Location
Lynn, MA, USA
Phone
5617815855
Rating
77
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,985,088
Expenses
$1,929,873
Assets
$5,342,443
Liabilities
$4,361,664

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

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • TRACEY SCHERRER (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
  • KURT LANGE (PRESIDENT)
  • ROBERT BISHOP (VICE PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • TRACEY SCHERRER (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $90,263 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Founded in 2011 the haven project inc. The organization is a not-for-profit organization operating out of lynn ma with the mission to equip train and empower at risk homeless young adults by providing them with the basic needs online learning educational support job training and job acquisition stable living options and opportunities to build community and life skills.

What it reported doing in 2025

Drop-in center provided at-risk homeless young adults with basic needs food education and job training.*engaged over 300 homeless unaccompanied through ongoing social media contact street outreach and community relationships; *provided grocery gift cards and year-round access to our on-site food pantry laundry facilities and shower facilities; *maintained ongoing phone social media email contact with 45 youth each week; *enrolled 100% of engaged clients in mass health and or snap food stamp benefits; *employed 53 clients in our job training program where they were able to build important work skills; *helped 75 young adults secure safe and reliable employment and provided in-person and or virtual job training workshops to 108 clients; *developed 10 partnerships to 1 assist clients as they transition from our program to outside work positions and 2 improve our community outreach and name recognition. These include the wash cycle target beth israel root nscc and salem state university;*secured housing for 49 homeless youth in apartments dorms and or room rentals; *assisted 78 clients to achieve an educational milestone 23 of whom graduated from an educational program - hiset high school and or college; and strategically scaling our impact with four groundbreaking initiatives: 1. Catalyst: a 23-unit permanent supportive housing project with on-site services for low moderate income young adults with one housing unit for a resident director as well as program and office space. Anticipated opening april 20252. The nest: we are working closely with lynn housing and development and our local youth action board to create the nest a transitional housing - rapid rehousing project in lynn for 24 homeless young adults. Renovations are currently underway and programming is set to begin this fall. 3. Expanded career development program: recognizing program participants are often unable to sustain housing with entry-level pay we designed a comprehensive approach that integrates community partnerships personal goal setting mental well-being financial literacy and traditional job skills training.4. Guaranteed income pilot program: a partnership with gma funders foundation to implement a financial program that provides monthly stipends to 28 young adults over the course of 18 months. The haven project will distribute these funds and track participant progress through quality of life surveys.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.

The verdict

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

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 65
  • Transparency & Controls: 87
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 41
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 68.5%; rating input score 68
  • Program expense ratio: 70.5%; rating input score 70
  • Fundraising efficiency: $10.28 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 94.4%; rating input score 94; 27th 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: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Fail
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 2.8%; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.77; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.82; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: Limited

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 25.6% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 16.9% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 35.7% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 68.5% of revenue deployed · 70.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $1.4M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $90K · 8 people listed
  • Consistency: 44 of 46 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2020 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.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 36/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 39/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 6/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Functional expense sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part IX CompCurrentOfficersDirectors column sum did not reconcile in the filed values.