Shorefront Nfp

Overview

Mission

Shorefronts mission is to collect, preserve, and share the stories of Black individuals who have lived, sometimes invisibly, throughout Chicagos suburban north shore.

What it reported doing in 2024

Archive & Collection: Shorefront Legacy Center promotes understanding of Black history on Chicagos suburban North Shore. It is an Evanston-based community archive, library, educational resource, and research center. The archival and library collections capture some of the history of African American activists, artists, leaders, politicians, and others who lived dynamic, rich lives in the North Shore. The material highlights the African American presence, experience, and impact.Shorefront Legacy Center collects and preserves the history through its living, community archive. Artifacts are collected in many forms, including personal items, articles, photographs, oral histories, digital media, and more. Shorefront Legacy Center is open to all researchers and the general public. Staff welcome inquiries regarding the archive's collections and information related to Black life in Evanston and Chicago's North Shore. For researchers who need assistance finding relevant materials on a particular research topic or to meet a specific information need, research consultation appointments are available.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 94% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
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.

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
010550386
IRS 990 coverage
2023–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2022, Form 990-N 2021
Headquarters
Evanston, IL, USA
Phone
8478647467
Rating
71
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Cultural, Ethnic Awareness

Official website

The verdict

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. 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: 40
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 76
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 19.6%; rating input score 20
  • Program expense ratio: 62.7%; rating input score 63
  • Fundraising efficiency: $34.96 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • 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: 71.1%; rating input score 96; 96th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.47; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 31.1%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 74.6% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 48.3% per year; rating input score 100; 96th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 36.2% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 19.6% of revenue deployed · 62.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $181K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $90K · 8 people listed
  • Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 2 annual filings from 2023 to 2024
  • 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.

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • LAURICE BELL (Executive Dir.): $89,744 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: FY2024.