Sistersong Inc

What it reported doing in 2024

The rj training program uses speeches, presentations, workshops, research projects, and partnerships to educate multitudes about rj issues, analyses, and work, preparing them to support and lead efforts to advance rj. The culture change program uses strategic cultural interventions to help shift us culture to support rj and resist oppression. The rj solidarity program builds rj movement solidarity and capacity by convening movement organizations and allies for community building, insight sharing, mutual support, strategic planning, and collaboration. The rj group power program builds the capacity of individual rj advocates and groups through providing resources, training, technical assistance, fiscal sponsorship, and regranting projects. The rj advocacy & organizing program leads and joins national and southern rj advocacy and organizing, using a variety of tactics, especially focused on issues that require a rapid or collective response. The rj state infrastructure program builds state-based rj movements through cultural interventions, base building, and collaborative advocacy and organizing in ga, nc, and ky, where sistersong has offices. The birth justice initiative trains oppressed people in birth justice topics, conducts advocacy and organizing for birth justice, and provides direct services that advance birth justice for oppressed people. The first nonprofit launched to build a national rj movement, sistersong has seeded and/or mentored nearly all rj organizations and events. We remain the oldest and largest national, multiethnic, multicultural rj organization, and the only one strategically headquartered in the deep south. We serve our movement as a steward of movement history, key thought leader and culture change innovator, voice to the media and major decisionmakers, trainer, convener, capacity builder, collaboration facilitator, advocate, organizer, and direct service provider. We educate hundreds of thousands on rj, support wide-reaching partners to integrate rj into their work and engage their bases, conduct and disseminate research that supports rj work, and engage people of faith to counter the use of faith to justify reproductive oppression. We spread rj through mainstream media, popular culture influencers, politicians, and the united nations. We convene all rj organizations across the south and nationally, support rj groups of all sizes, and engage diverse allies and coalitions to advance rj advocacy and organizing and to integrate rj into direct services. We train oppressed birth workers to provide care through an rj lens, pay them to support oppressed mamas in need, and give oppressed mamas essential baby supplies. We have made rj a household term in much of the country, and we have built and continue to develop and support a national movement accomplishing far more than can be summarized here. We will not stop until reproductive justice is a reality for all opressed people -- until all can maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children when and as we want, and parent in safety and sufficiency.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 87.6%; rating input score 88
• Program expense ratio: 80.6%; rating input score 81
• Fundraising efficiency: $25.86 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd 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: 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: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Fail
  • 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: -8.1%; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.13; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 92; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 8.7%; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 29.9% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 24.4% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 33.3% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings