YSS
Legal name: Youth and Shelter Services Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 421051609
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Location
- Ames, IA, USA
- Phone
- 515.233.3141
- Rating
- 80
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Children's, Youth Services
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $38,067,297
- Expenses
- $25,400,194
- Assets
- $50,972,427
- Liabilities
- $7,242,515
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
24 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- ALLEN ANDREW (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER)
- WARME KARA (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE YSS FOUNDATION)
Highest reported compensation
- ALLEN ANDREW (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER): $232,435 total reported compensation
- VANDERLINDEN MARK (CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER): $168,680 total reported compensation
- MEDINA NICOLLE LEA (THERAPY- YSSNI): $122,215 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Creating hope and opportunity by putting kids first.
What it reported doing in 2024
The organization has offices in multiple locations that have licenseed individual, family, and group interventions in both the office, the home and in school settings. The organization can evaluate and treat young children, as well as young adults, through specialized and conventional interventions.
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 93% 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of total spending goes to programs and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filed totals do not add up.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 70
- Transparency & Controls: 77
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 76
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 57.9%; rating input score 58
- Program expense ratio: 86.7%; rating input score 87
- Fundraising efficiency: $68 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 93.8%; rating input score 94; 17th 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: Pass
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd 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; 66th 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: 33.3%; rating input score 89; 89th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.01; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.14; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 2.9%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 4.5% per year; rating input score 100; 38th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 7.1% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 15.5% per year; rating input score 100; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 14 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 6 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 57.9% of revenue deployed · 86.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 19 of 19 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $22M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $232K · 24 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $8.8M reported
- Consistency: 35 of 36 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 10 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 5 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 2 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.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 58/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.