An analysis of the childrens aid society and its contributions to the community Essay

Evaluation of Children’s Aid Society Mission Statement The Children’s Aid Society is a 501Â ©3 children’s services agency that helps children in poverty to succeed and thrive. They do this by providing comprehensive support to children and their families living in high needs New York City neighborhoods (website). This organization has developed services that ensure children have access to programs that promote health and wellness as well as social-emotional development skills. They also strive to make sure that children attend college. The Form 990 on page 2 does not provide any further detailed information. With the available information from the mission statement on the website, as well as Form 990 part I and III, it is difficult to evaluate this nonprofit organization’s mission. The quality and the quantity of the available information from the website, and Form 990 is difficult to evaluate because the mission statement was not stated in the annual report. The Children’s Aid Society provides information about its programs on their website. The Form 990 and the annual report are very similar because it is almost the same information. They provide numbers about how many people they serve and the impact the programs have on the children and families. The website and the annual report 2013 both mention this information. Effectiveness From the information obtained, the website provides the effectiveness of the programs from the website, the annual report and the Form 990. The programmatic goals state how many children receive service from various programs. The website provides the number of children served by the organization. The Children’s Aid Society has three major programs that include Early Childhood (0-5), School Age (5-13), and Adolescence (14-18). Early Childhood- The program’s goals are preparing young children for school success through physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development. The core services they provide are Early Head Start for children ages 0-3, and Head Start and Early Learn Day Care for ages 3-5. School Age- The program’s goal is to promote physical, social, and emotional well-being as key factors for high school graduation and college success. This program serves to engage children, families, schools, and communities through a focus on academics, services, support, and opportunities. The core services include out-of-school time programs in Children’s Aid Community Centers and schools, summer camps, athletics, and the national center for community schools that provide assistance to developing a community school model nationally and internationally. Adolescence-The goals of this program are to enhance young people’s physical, social, and emotional competencies as well as improving their academic performance and preparing them for successful careers and gaining financial independence. According to the Form 990, the core services that the organization provides are the Carrera adolescent pregnancy prevention program, which meets the top-tier evidence of effectiveness standards by the coalition for evidence-based policy. The EXCEL college support program assists young people to enter and complete college. The HOPE Leadership Academy provides wrap-around support and develops leadership through a peer education model. They also provide teen employment services such as AmeriCorps internships and the summer youth employment program. Efficiency From the information obtained from the three sources, it is very difficult to determine whether these programs have been efficient in the programs that they administer. After looking into the Form 990, there is no available information about the total costs per person in the programs provided. The three most expensive programs are school age, adolescence, and early childhood. School-age- The total cost of this program is $18,843,068. In Form 990 on page 2, the organization mentions that its goal is promoting physical, social and emotional well-being. However, they do not mention any specific programs. In the annual report, it states that they provide health services to about 4,000 children through school-based health clinics. They do not provide costs for each child served by the school-based health clinics. The annual report also states that the Office of Client Advocacy helped 345 clients avoid eviction. There is no information on the program information in Form 990, pg 2. Adolescence- The total cost of this program is $15,402, 365. In Form 990, page 2 mentions Carrera-Adolescent Prevention Program but does not provide any further information on the number of people served and the costs. The annual report also does not state how many adolescents were served and at what cost. However, the annual report states that the program reduced teen pregnancy by 50 percent. The EXCEL college support program does not provide information on the number of students served as well as how much it costs. The annual report states that more than 90 percent of EXCEL students graduate high school and go on to college. There is no information on how many students are in the program. The quality and the quantity of available information is not very satisfying because there should be detailed information on the exact costs of each major program within the program. Early Childhood- The total cost of this program is $11,612,396. According to the Form 990 page 2, the organization mentions the Early Head Start program. The program provides numbers on its website stating that each family receives a minimum of 32 home visits a year for 90 minutes each. However, it does not state the number of families served. The 2013 annual report does not contain any specific numbers about the program. The quality and quantity of available information are not satisfying because there are no exact costs of how much program costs. According to the nonprofit’s annual report, the management and general administration costs increased to $7,378 in 2012 compared to $6,546 in 2011. This organization increased its expenses, which means that they are spending money on ways to increase mission impact and evaluate programs that may or may not work. The costs of the programs from the Form 990 do not match the financial statement in the annual report. In Form 990, it states larger expanses and is not specific about where the money went. In the annual report, the expenses are more specific but the costs seem to be smaller in Form 990. This shows that the organization is not efficient in its programs. It also shows that they may not have provided other essential information. Governance The Form 990 claims that the Children’s Aid Society has a governing body where the organization documents all meetings. It also states that the committees have the authority to represent the organization on behalf of the governing body. This organization also has different policies. The two main policies that it has based on Form 990 are the whistleblower policy and the written document retention and destruction policy. The Form 990 states that the organization consists of 31 Board Members. These members also have the power to elect other members to the governing body. The Children’s Aid Society has executive centrality governance. Finances The organizations current total revenue is $117,154,454 and its current total expense is $121,692,560. This organization is running a deficit rather than a surplus. The organization is losing its revenue stream and its assets will not cover it for a long time. The organization is fiscally unsustainable. The organization has net unrestricted assets total of $258,063,545 and its restricted assets is a total of $13,848,823. According to the Form 990, the organization received a total of $31,966,571 in contributions and grants. However, it only spent $31,966,571 on fundraising expenses. After dividing the expenses by costs, a total cost of raising a dollar was .09, which is very low. The salary of the Chief Executive Officer is $408,431.00 and it is too much. The average salary according to www.payscale.com states that the average salary is $100,000 for a Chief Executive Officer of a nonprofit organization. After calculating the organization’s program expanse it came up to be .88 ratio from dividing its total program service expenses by its total functional expenses. After analyzing the Children’s Aid Society, I determined that this organization is not worthy of a significant contribution because it is not transparent in providing information to the public. Even though it has a high mission impact in helping children get out of poverty, financially it is starting to become unsustainable in its assets and revenues. This shows that the organization is mismanaging its finances spending. This organization does not earn the seal of approval because the potential donor wants to donate to an organization that is impact-oriented and achieves results cost-effectively, which this organization does not achieve.