America First Legal Foundation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 862190372
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2022–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Washington, DC, USA
- Phone
- 2029643721
- Rating
- 68
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Standard
- Sector
- Public Interest Law
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $31,973,002
- Expenses
- $15,186,933
- Assets
- $30,185,824
- Liabilities
- $604,103
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Stephen Miller (President, Executive Director)
Highest reported compensation
- Gene Hamilton (VP, General Counsel, Secretary): $793,500 total reported compensation
- Stephen Miller (President, Executive Director): $567,326 total reported compensation
- Daniel Epstein (Lawyer): $417,250 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
America First Legal Foundation's mission is to provide the conservative movement with the litigation tools, tactics, resources, and strategies to help make it successful in advancing conservative policy solutions.
What it reported doing in 2024
To encourage, sponsor, and facilitate the cultivation and diffusion of knowledge and understanding of the law and individual rights, to promote the rule of law in the United States and to ensure due process and equal protection under the law for all Americans.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 98% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most filed governance safeguards are in place. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and program spending has declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 57
- Transparency & Controls: 81
- Accountability: 81
- Sustainability: 73
- Growth: 20
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 40.2%; rating input score 40
- Program expense ratio: 82.7%; rating input score 83
- Fundraising efficiency: $22.41 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 93.8%; rating input score 94; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- 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: 66.7%; rating input score 67; 11th 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: 52.5%; rating input score 94; 94th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.99; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 90; 90th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 17.5%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -57.6% per year; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -21.7% per year; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 43.6% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 40.2% of revenue deployed · 82.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 4 of 6 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $12.6M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $794K · 11 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $3.9M reported
- Consistency: 32 of 33 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2022 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 8 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.
- 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.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 40/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 6/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Schedule R controlled transactions itemized did not reconcile in the filed values.