The Young Men's Christian Association of Greater Louisville Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
610444843
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-T 2025
Location
Louisville, KY, USA
Phone
5025879622
Rating
87
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Standard
Sector
Young Men's or Women's Associations
Affiliation
Christianity

Reported finances

Revenue
$44,048,509
Expenses
$58,235,233
Assets
$138,052,274
Liabilities
$17,429,829

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

Leadership & pay

46 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Gary A Cobbs (President)
  • Freddie Brown Jr (Group Vice President)
  • Jeff Jaehnen (Group Vice President)
  • Laura Lewter (Executive Director)
  • Leonard Speed (Group Vice President)
  • Ryan Kingery (Vice President of Information Technology)

Highest reported compensation

  • Gary A Cobbs (President): $448,987 total reported compensation
  • Ryan Kingery (Vice President of Information Technology): $197,092 total reported compensation
  • Jeff Jaehnen (Group Vice President): $184,795 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

The YMCA of Greater Louisville is a mission-based organization of people of all ages, faiths & abilities, all working side-by-side to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to live life to its fullest. Our mission is to put Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind, and body for all. The YMCA is committed to strengthening communities we serve through the delivery of programs and services in three areas: Youth Development, Healthy Living and Social Responsibility. We believe that lasting personal and social change can only come about when we work together to invest in our kids, our health and our neighbors. At the root of our Movement is our commitment to character development embodied in the Y's core values of caring, honesty, respect and responsibility; everything we do stems from this. With the help of our community's contributions, we provide financial assistance to those who are in need of YMCA programs and services.

What it reported doing in 2025

Social Responsibility - the YMCA has been listening and responding to the Louisville community's most critical social needs since 1853. The YMCA supports our community through programs such as housing for runaway and homeless youth at our YMCA Safe Place Services branch, permanent housing for men trying to break out of the cycle of homelessness at our Chestnut Street YMCA branch, and teaching Safety Around Water, a drowning prevention initiative, to children. With these programs, we deliver training, resources and support to empower our neighbors to produce change, bridge gaps and overcome obstacles. The outreach shelter and counseling services offered at YMCA Safe Place Services enable teens that may come from abusive homes or struggle with chemical dependency a "Safe Place" to land. Here, youth are provided emergency shelter, individual and family counseling, opportunities for spiritual activities, and life skills learning sessions that aim at healing and re-uniting families. Street outreach and programs directed toward children of incarcerated parents -YNOW (YMCA's New Outlook Within) provide mentors and peer education groups that stress problem prevention and personal fitness to families in crisis. Services are offered as a form of financial assistance to assist these youth since YMCA Safe Place is the only 24 hour free, crisis shelter for teens and the only free care-based intensive case management and family mediation program for teens and their parents in this community.

Operating model

Revenue model
Other-operating. 63% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 98% 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 expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 90
  • Transparency & Controls: 81
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 34
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 86.7%; rating input score 87
  • Fundraising efficiency: $14.36 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 94.4%; rating input score 94; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 94.7%; rating input score 95; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100

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: -32.2%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.37; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.13; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 2.6%; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 2.7% per year; rating input score 100; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 2.5% per year; rating input score 100; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 6% per year; rating input score 100; 42nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 86.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 39 of 39 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $50.5M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $449K · 46 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $2.4M reported
  • Consistency: 42 of 43 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 9 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, executive pay, and related organizations
  • Filing history: 16 filing years from 2010 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 10 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 4 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.

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 45/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 2/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 58/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.