A Legacy of Equality Leadership and Organizing

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
910914637
IRS 990 coverage
2018–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Seattle, WA, USA
Phone
2068601400
Rating
82
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Legal Services

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$415,878
Expenses
$472,405
Assets
$625,303
Liabilities
$13,404

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

6 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Ricardo Ortega (Executive Director)

Highest reported compensation

  • Ricardo Ortega (Executive Director): $84,075 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

LELO strives to empower low-income workers of color, recent immigrants and women workers to assert their rights, improve their working conditions and gain a voice in their workplaces, trade unions and communities, in the U.S. and across the globe.

What it reported doing in 2024

General Programs, City Food Equity, City Pre-filing, History Project, Mexico Solidarity, Bantayog, and other programs: LELO's Food Equity Program (FEP) has been successfully planned, funded, and implemented a grassroots effort to provide our multi-racial community with organic vegetables and fruits, methods to prepare healthy foods, knowledge of how to take care of our health and education on why food sovereignty is as an alternative to the food system that we currently have. The Food Equity Program distributed 75 boxes of organic produce and fruit every week from June to September, 2024. Also, every other week we have educational sessions to talk about important issues related to our food and the importance of taking care of our environment. We worked to organize our communities to ensure that our people have access to healthy food. Pre-filing Diversion Program. This program provides a service-based alternative to criminal charges for people who have been ticketed by Seattle Police Department for Driving with a License Suspended 3 (DWLS 3). In 2024 the Pre-filing Diversion Program enrolled 32 clients and 4 regained their driver's license.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 72% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 88% 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.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 95
  • Transparency & Controls: 77
  • Accountability: 74
  • Sustainability: 30
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 92.7%; rating input score 93
  • Fundraising efficiency: $64.91 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: 1 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 12
    • Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
    • Requires narrative reports: Limited
    • Conducts field audits: Limited
    • May suspend future funding: Limited
    • Requires financial reports: Limited
    • Conducts site visits: Limited
    • Requires grant agreements: Limited
    • May require repayment: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 96.6%; rating input score 97; 56th 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -13.6%; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.32; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 17.8%; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 12.6% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 11% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 13.9% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 92.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 3 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $438K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $84K · 6 people listed
  • Consistency: 33 of 33 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, and grants
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2018 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 2 filed related-organization links
  • 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.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

  • Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 19/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 48/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 21/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 40/100.
  • High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.