Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Aajc Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 133619000
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2015–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-T 2020
- Location
- Washington, DC, USA
- Phone
- 2022962300
- Rating
- 87
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Civil Rights
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $8,897,328
- Expenses
- $15,485,941
- Assets
- $33,850,507
- Liabilities
- $1,428,677
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
20 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JOHN C YANG (PRESIDENT & EXEC. DIR.)
Highest reported compensation
- LUCY LEE (VP, FINANCE & OPERATIONS): $269,793 total reported compensation
- JOHN C YANG (PRESIDENT & EXEC. DIR.): $268,305 total reported compensation
- JINY SHIN (VP, POLICY & PROGRAMS): $237,910 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The mission of asian americans advancing justice-aajc (aajc) is to advance civil and human rights for asian americans and to build and promote a fair and equitable society for all.
What it reported doing in 2025
Immigration and immigrant rights: aajc provides leadership, educates policymakers, stakeholders, and the media on immigration policy as it affects the asian american and pacific islander communities. Aajc advocates for fair and just immigration policies that protect family unity, provide access to immigration status and citizenship, and promote civil rights protections and due process in enforcement. Aajc also provides the asian american community with essential information, insight and analysis on newly enacted and proposed immigration and immigrant integration policies and programs.aajc works to combat the government's racial targeting and profiling of asian american and asian immigrant scientists, researchers, and scholars, particularly those of chinese descent. Aajc leads federal advocacy efforts, including successful advocacy to end the department of justice's china initiative. Aajc also provides a legal referral service in english and mandarin chinese that connects people impacted by government profiling to attorneys and helps ensure they know their rights.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 88% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 47% for direct work, and 53% for grants.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 89
- Transparency & Controls: 83
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 30
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 84.5%; rating input score 84
- Fundraising efficiency: $13.46 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- 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; 75th 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: 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: -74.1%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.19; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 9.9%; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 18.1% per year; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 13.6% per year; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 20.4% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 84.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 13 of 13 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 10 filed program accomplishments · $13.1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $270K · 20 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 3 contractors listed · $566K reported
- Consistency: 36 of 36 current checks pass
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 11 filing years from 2015 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 60 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 53 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.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 46/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 1/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 34/100.