Tracys Kids Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 263835257
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Bethesda, MD, USA
- Phone
- 2022564466
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Standard
- Sector
- Cancer
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $249,663
- Expenses
- $629,285
- Assets
- $398,714
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
12 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Matthew Gerson Esq (President and Board member)
Highest reported compensation
- Matthew Gerson Esq (President and Board member): $60,000 total reported compensation
- Tracy Councill (Program Director and Board Member): $15,000 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Tracys Kids uses Art Therapy to help young cancer patients and their families cope with the emotional stress and trauma of cancer and its treatment. Our Masters-trained therapists give them a chance to process their emotions, have some well-deserved fun, and build emotional resilience. Our mission is to ensure that the children we serve are emotionally equipped to fight the illness as actively as possible and prepared for the time when they are cancer-free.
What it reported doing in 2025
The Tracys Kids program at Sinai Children's Hospital in Baltimore led 1,400 art therapy sessions, serving some 1,900 contacts. The program is characterized by its multi-faceted structure. Daily art therapy sessions in the clinic and at bedside are augmented by a monthly support group for adolescents and young adults, a weekly Mindfulness Art Therapy Zoom-based group, individual art therapy sessions through the hospital's tele-health platform, and ongoing support for patients on long-term follow-up.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 84% 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 - 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 some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 85
- Transparency & Controls: 95
- Accountability: 74
- Sustainability: 21
- Growth: 0
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 80%; rating input score 80
- Fundraising efficiency: $6.99 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 83.3%; rating input score 83; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -152.1%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.63; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 11.9%; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -0.5% per year; rating input score 0; 27th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -0.3% per year; rating input score 0; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -2.3% per year; rating input score 0; 15th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 80% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 10 of 12 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $387K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $60K · 12 people listed
- Consistency: 18 of 20 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2011 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 7 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.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 28/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 1/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 30/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Functional expense sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Series expense component sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 25/100.