United Way of Bay County

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
381360524
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Bay City, MI, USA
Phone
9898937508
Rating
87
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,589,053
Expenses
$1,524,648
Assets
$3,427,190
Liabilities
$310,356

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

Leadership & pay

24 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • NICOLE LUCZAK (PRESIDENT/CE)

Highest reported compensation

  • NICOLE LUCZAK (PRESIDENT/CE): $85,548 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 engage and empower our community to collectively impact lives. United way of bay county envisions a thriving community where every person has access to equitable opportunities that lead to an enhanced quality of life.

What it reported doing in 2025

Community investment & planning: includes research on bay county data and community planning and collaboration with non-profit, business and government to identify the needs in the united way impact areas of healthy community, youth opportunity, financial security and community resiliency. Coordination of 20 volunteers to allocate resources to local programs that demonstrate measurable outcomes on community identified issues. United way staff participates in all major active community collaborative tasks force groups established by the human service collaborative council.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 86% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 55% for direct work, and 45% for grants.

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: 82
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 50
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 86.3%; rating input score 86
  • Program expense ratio: 85.4%; rating input score 85
  • Fundraising efficiency: $18.57 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 94.1%; rating input score 94; 26th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 99.4%; rating input score 99; 53rd 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: 8 of 8 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: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 4.1%; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.25; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.09; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 5.6%; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 8.8% per year; rating input score 100; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 11.3% per year; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 4.1% per year; rating input score 100; 32nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 86.3% of revenue deployed · 85.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 21 of 21 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $1.3M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $86K · 24 people listed
  • Consistency: 36 of 37 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2020 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 18 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 17 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.

  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 53/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 42/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 36/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 49/100.