Acadiana Legal Service Corporation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
720832432
IRS 990 coverage
2011–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Lafayette, LA, USA
Phone
8662752572
Rating
83
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Legal Services
Affiliation
Christianity

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$12,075,185
Expenses
$11,454,438
Assets
$8,956,462
Liabilities
$2,782,773

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

Leadership & pay

24 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • GEORGE ERNEST III (PRESIDENT)
  • SANTRICA POPE (VICE PRESIDENT)
  • SACHIDA RAMAN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • SACHIDA RAMAN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $175,547 total reported compensation
  • SANDRA S POTIER (FORMER CFO): $137,556 total reported compensation
  • FRANCHESCA HAMILTON-ACKER (SR. ATTORNEY/UNIT LEADER): $135,528 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

The mission of acadiana legal services corporation is to provide exceptional civil legal services by advocating for fairness, protection, and justice. Our vision for the state is for these services to be easy and timely accessible.

What it reported doing in 2024

In 2024, alsc handled 6,864, cases that assisted 10,242 eligible Louisiana households, serving 4,774 children, 148 veterans, 347 domestic violence survivors, and 810 elderly residents being 60+ years old. Alsc had a positive economic impact within our communities which included over $1.3m in disability benefits, spousal support, successions, medicare and medicaid benefits and in housing matters.in addition to the lsc disaster grant, partnerships between the Louisiana office of community development (ocd), hunt, guillot & associates (hga), and alsc help address heir and title property issues for disaster survivors still struggling with repairs. Alsc partnered with the federal home loan bank of dallas and the red riverbank to address other heir property initiatives in 2025. Through a collaborative partnership with the players coalition charitable foundation, we are able to address systemic barriers that threaten black generational wealth by focusing on heirs' property issues.alsc is also poised to pursue additional funding sources in 2025 for expungement related cases for those seeking to be gainfully employed. Alsc provided representation in over 150 cases to help disaster survivors recover and rebuild their lives. Alsc can now utilize justice mobile units to travel to the underserved "legal deserts" in northeast Louisiana to provide outreach and to deliver services to our client community literally at their doorsteps.alsc, in 2023, was one of only 9 grantees selected and received a $1million statewide hud eviction prevention grant for two years. Alsc sub-contracted with southeast Louisiana legal services (slls), enabling slls to provide services in the greater new orleans area. This grant was renewed for another two years in 2025.alsc obtained $300,000 from the department of veterans affairs (va), legal services for homeless veterans and veterans at-risk for homelessness (lsv-h) grant in 2024. Alsc has also applied for the violence against women act, lav grant for the fall of 2025.in 2024, our educational and outreach efforts in conjunction with our justice mobile units have expanded connection to 18,432 additional residents. Providing such valuable legal information enables our client community to protect and address their legal issues before it develops into a crisis.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 98% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 99% 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. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 83
  • Transparency & Controls: 75
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 44
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 79.5%; rating input score 79
  • Program expense ratio: 83.7%; rating input score 84
  • Fundraising efficiency: $904.38 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 96; 96th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • 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: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • 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: 5.1%; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.78; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.31; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 6.2%; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 13.9% per year; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 12.5% per year; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 17.6% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 79.5% of revenue deployed · 83.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 18 of 18 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $9.6M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $176K · 24 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 32 of 32 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 13 filing years from 2011 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 11 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 5 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.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

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

  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 54/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 28/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 41/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 45/100.