It's a mental health nonprofit built on compassion, but workers say compassion doesn't pay the bills. Dozens of employees at the Community Counseling Centers of Chicago claim they've gone months at a time without pay.

Those workers said they fear the group's financial struggles are now hurting the people they serve.

Kateland Godat, a former staff therapist, Gabriela Cortina, a former staff supervisor, and Imani Jacquet, a former staff clinician, have two things in common. They all said working at the mental health nonprofit Community Counseling Centers of Chicago – or C4 – was a dream job, in theory; and they all recently quit.

"All we want to do is help, and it feels like that fact is being taken advantage of by these people in these positions of power," Jacquet said.

CBS News Chicago has been covering financial problems at the community-based nonprofit since 2019, and those reports spurred the Illinois Attorney General to open an investigation in 2020.

C4 seemed to correct course, but then issues resurfaced again this summer.

In August, after a slew of late paychecks, Community Counseling Centers of Chicago CEO Kerri Brown, said, "we will work and overcome these temporary challenges," and told workers on a staff Zoom call at the time, "we're not in a place of shutdown"

But according to dozens of employees, it hasn't been temporary, and things have only gotten much worse since the summer.

"I needed to rely on family for rent, for groceries," Cortina said.

"I was hit with a five-day notice from my current landlord because I wasn't paying rent," Jacquet said.

"Now we're at a point where savings are nonexistent," said one clinician, who asked to remain anonymous.

"I'm late on several bills, and I've just got to ignore them because I don't have the money," said another clinician, who also asked to stay anonymous.

Both clinicians asked for anonymity because they were still employed by C4.

They stopped getting paid altogether for nearly two months. As of late November, they're at least four paychecks behind.

"It's a very dire, desperate situation," one clinician said.

The current and former C4 staffers said they're most upset because now they say C4's financial troubles aren't just affecting them. They said patient care also has suffered as a result.

"For sure," Cortina said.

"Absolutely, without question," Jacquet said.

One employee, who specifically works with children, said she's been stretched so thin that some kids are left waiting for hours — or going home from school without care.

"It's scary because I think that people stop wanting to help or looking for that mental health support because of the lack of follow-through," she said.

The impact could be life-changing.

"Then they quit on therapy, and then there's, 'Oh, here's another person who left me,'" Godet said.

Over the summer, Brown blamed a perfect storm of tight cash flows, infrastructure issues and repairs, and "reversals of some funding."

"The math is in fact not mathing. It is not coming together in a way that makes sense," Jacquet said.

Cortina said she held on for as long as she could before quitting in October. She's still owed at least $12,000.

"My hope is that we get paid, and hold people accountable," she said.

But who is accountable?

The BBB Wise Giving Alliance performs crucial accountability assessments on nonprofits across the country, and president and CEO Bennett Weiner said C4 didn't even respond to their request regarding financial issues at C4. Most charities do — so that was the first red flag for him.

"The key is whether the organization is taking action in order to address those concerns. And, as far as who's responsible in doing that, I would say the buck stops with the board.

That brings up another problem — C4 no longer has a list of current board members on their website.

C4's most recent IRS Form 990 available, the tax form for charities, is for 2022, about two years behind. Attempts to access C4's annual report online result in an error message.

"Having an accessible annual report or information equivalent on a charity's website is essential," Weiner said.

The irony is lost on absolutely no one that the charity's career page is titled "More than a Paycheck."

In fact, during the course of reporting on this story, C4's website went completely offline altogether.

Weiner said all of these red flags will likely make it more difficult for C4 to secure additional donors and grant money.

"If you're not making essential information available to the donating public and others, you're going to end up hurting yourself in the short- and long-run," Weiner said.

When Brown failed to respond to multiple requests for an interview, CBS News Chicago went to their offices in person, but C4's administrative building was a ghost town.

Brown eventually responded via email, saying, "We are working diligently to resolve these matters responsibly and to stabilize operations," but sharing no specifics as to their plan.

Brown blamed CBS News Chicago for presenting "an incomplete and misleading picture that damaged the organization's reputation" despite repeatedly declining to be interviewed for this story -- the very opportunity that would have allowed us to present a more complete perspective.

The Illinois Attorney General's office said C4 is not in compliance with reporting requirements contained in the Charitable Trust Act. According to records from the Illinois Department of Labor, they've received at least 52 complaints about C4, with a total of more than $250,000 claimed.

Brown said he could not comment on those matters because they are still pending.

"It feels a lot like the agency, as a whole, is continuing to move, but the body parts are decaying," one C4 clinician said.

"It's impossible to live and it's impossible to show up to work and provide the services that we need," another clinician said.

C4 also touts partnerships with at least eight major organizations on their website — including Northwestern Medicine, but in a statement, Northwestern Medicine said, "We do not have an active relationship with C4." Other organizations listed as partners on the C4 website did not respond to requests for comment.