Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid

Legal name: Mid-Minnesota Legal Assistance

Overview

Mission

Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid provides free civil legal services to low-income individuals, seniors, and people with disabilities across central Minnesota, ensuring equal access to justice.

What it reported doing in 2025

General case services: we provided a wide range of free legal services to people with low incomes in more than twenty counties in central Minnesota through offices in minneapolis, st cloud, and wilmar, and we served additional clients statewide. We helped approximately 20,700 low-income people defend their legal rights to basic needs like food, shelter, safety, and heath care through more than eight thousand client matters. Disability law services: we provided free civil legal assistance to individuals with disabilities statewide on legal issues related to their disabilities. We served approximately nine hundred minnesotans with disabilities with representation and information regarding their rights and provided technical assistance on 65 other disability related matters. We also protected disability rights by monitoring 66 facilities that cared for, housed, and taught people with disabilities.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 77% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
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
411412710
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2025
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Headquarters
Minneapolis, MN, USA
Phone
1-877-696-6529
Rating
82
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Standard

Official website

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 88
  • Transparency & Controls: 71
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 19
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 90.6%; rating input score 91
  • Program expense ratio: 84.6%; rating input score 85
  • Fundraising efficiency: $61.65 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Missing
  • 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • 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: -7.1%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.71; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.46; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 5.8%; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 6.2% per year; rating input score 100; 49th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 5.4% per year; rating input score 100; 45th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 8.2% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 3 programs and campaigns described on the official site
  • Where the money goes: 90.6% of revenue deployed · 84.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 18 of 18 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $22M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $262K · 31 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $113K reported
  • Consistency: 29 of 29 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors, executive pay, and related organizations
  • Filing history: 16 annual filings from 2010 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 7 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • 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.

Leadership & pay

31 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • MILO MUMGAARD (EXECUTIVE DI): $262,203 total reported compensation
  • RON ELWOOD (SUPERVISING): $219,281 total reported compensation
  • TAOFEEK ISHOLA (CONTROLLER): $208,591 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: FY2025.