Wisconsin Alliance for Fire Safety Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
391703736
IRS 990 coverage
2011–2014
Forms available
Form 990 2014
Location
Madison, WI, USA
Phone
6082515832
Rating
48
Verdict
MIXED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Fire Prevention

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$299,392
Expenses
$336,570
Assets
$0
Liabilities
$0

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2014. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

1 person listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • KATHY MEULEMANS (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • KATHY MEULEMANS (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $52,688 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2014. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Encourage fire safety and sponsor a summer burn camp

What it reported doing in 2014

Promote and encourage fire safety through programs such as newspapers in education and brecker bunny

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 72% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 97% 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

MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 57
  • Transparency & Controls: 68
  • Accountability: 21
  • Sustainability: 12
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 55.5%; rating input score 55
  • Program expense ratio: 49.1%; rating input score 49
  • Fundraising efficiency: $165 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 92; 92nd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 87.5%; rating input score 88; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 26.1%; rating input score 26; 34th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: Limited
  • Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • 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: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -12.4%; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
  • Officer compensation ratio: 15.7%; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -57% per year; rating input score 0; 5th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -7.3% per year; rating input score 0; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -46.6% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 55.5% of revenue deployed · 49.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 4 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $165K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $53K · 1 people listed
  • Consistency: 29 of 31 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2011 to 2014
  • 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.

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.

  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 55/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 49/100.
  • High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 26/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 18/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 1/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 27/100.
  • High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.