AccessLex Institute
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 232719985
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Location
- West Chester, PA, USA
- Phone
- 4846533300
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Financial Institutions
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $72,063,198
- Expenses
- $83,246,965
- Assets
- $1,569,435,529
- Liabilities
- $570,676,631
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
29 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- CHRISTOPHER P CHAPMAN (PRESIDENT & CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- CHRISTOPHER P CHAPMAN (PRESIDENT & CEO): $1,166,595 total reported compensation
- DEBRA SWARTZ (SVP GENERAL COUNSEL & CCO): $519,578 total reported compensation
- CYNTHIA A CASSITY (SVP STRATEGIC ENGAGEMENT & HELIX COO): $410,870 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
AccessLex Institute fosters broad-based access to quality legal education for talented, purpose-driven students and works to maximize the value and affordability of a law degree through policy advocacy, research, and student-focused initiatives. The AccessLex Center for Education and Financial Capability® empowers aspiring, current, and recently graduated law students with the tools and knowledge to make informed financial decisions throughout their legal education journey. Through free online and in-person resources – including the MAX by AccessLex® personal finance program, one-on-one coaching with Accredited Financial Counselors, interactive money management and loan repayment tools, scholarship programs, and timely guidance for students, pre-law advisors, and law school administrators – the Center promotes confident financial decision-making on the path to personal and...
What it reported doing in 2024
See schedule o
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 82% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 96% 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
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 85
- Transparency & Controls: 76
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 38
- Growth: 0
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 89.4%; rating input score 89
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 5 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 83
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Pass
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
- Grant itemization coverage: 98.3%; rating input score 98; 35th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 41st 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: -15.5%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 18.85; rating input score 96; 96th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.36; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 6.3%; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -8.1% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -9.2% per year; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -11.9% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: Mission, programs, and operating context captured from the official website.
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 89.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 12 of 13 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $74.5M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $1.2M · 29 people listed · 5 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $3.1M reported
- Consistency: 35 of 36 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes foreign activity, grants, executive pay, and related organizations
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2009 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 55 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 44 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.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 5/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 10/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 49/100.