YWCA Greater Cleveland

Legal name: Young Womens Christian Association of Cleveland Ohio

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
340714800
IRS 990 coverage
2009–2024
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Cleveland, OH, USA
Phone
216-674-6700 (If you need shelter)
Rating
78
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Standard
Affiliation
Christianity

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$10,248,399
Expenses
$8,338,666
Assets
$20,532,661
Liabilities
$3,367,619

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

34 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • HELEN FORBES-FIELDS (PRESIDENT & CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • HELEN FORBES-FIELDS (PRESIDENT & CEO): $240,437 total reported compensation
  • CYNTHIA DAILEY (EXECUTIVE VP): $203,516 total reported compensation
  • DENISE COATS (EXECUTIVE VP): $110,223 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

YWCA Greater Cleveland is dedicated to building community, empowerment, and promoting peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all. Founded in 1868, YWCA Greater Cleveland is the seventh-oldest YWCA in the nation and one of the city’s most enduring nonprofit organizations. For over 150 years, we’ve been a trusted advocate and support system for individuals facing homelessness, trauma, and deep-rooted barriers to stability. Support from our donors and program partners EMPOWERS our work | our participants | our community. We provide critical services—including affordable housing, mental health support, crisis intervention, workforce development, and housing stability programs. Every contribution directly empowers individuals to rebuild their lives and take steps toward lasting independence.

What it reported doing in 2024

The ywca greater cleveland trauma-informed early learning center is a preschool serving 50 vulnerable families in an innovative framework that supports the social, emotional, physical, and cognitive growth of families and their children aged 3-5 years that are experiencing homelessness or other similar adverse experiences. The two-generational program model assesses and identifies the social and emotional needs of the children, works with families to create goals and case plans, to prevent re-occurrence of homelessness, and empowers families to achieve and maintain the highest level of self-sufficiency.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% 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

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: 69
  • Transparency & Controls: 77
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 69
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 65.5%; rating input score 66
  • Program expense ratio: 77.4%; rating input score 77
  • Fundraising efficiency: $19.17 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 14th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • 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; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 18.6%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.46; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.16; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 7.9%; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 11% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 10.7% per year; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 6.5% per year; rating input score 100; 45th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 3 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
  • Where the money goes: 65.5% of revenue deployed · 77.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 30 of 30 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $6.5M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $240K · 34 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 30 of 31 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, executive pay, and related organizations
  • Filing history: 16 filing years from 2009 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 4 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.
  • 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.

  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 56/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 30/100.