Basicneeds Us Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 264181803
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2019–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2024
- Location
- Lexington, MA, USA
- Phone
- 3399700300
- Rating
- 53
- Verdict
- MIXED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- International Relief
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $9,513
- Expenses
- $14,120
- Assets
- $28,365
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
3 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Richard Dougherty (President)
People named in this filing
- Richard Dougherty (President)
- Charlotte Dougherty (Director)
- Christopher Underhill (Director)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
BasicNeeds US promotes the development of community support groups in the global south for marginalized people with mental illness. We fund development strategies for training community groups to provide mutual support through inclusive village banking practices, participatory dialogue and cooperative livelihoods. We provide seed funding and consultation to promote these innovative efforts globally in partnership with the BasicNeeds Network, CBM UK and other global mental health leadership groups.
What it reported doing in 2024
Promoting VSLAs in Community Support Groups: In April 2025, BNUS travelled to Ghana to visit with inclusive VSLA groups. We met with BN Ghana staff, local groups and government officials to identify development issues and review progress from previous years' grants from the ECOM Foundation. The visit was important to better understand local conditions, capacity and opportunities for success. To strengthen the process and documentation behind establishing Inclusive VSLAs, BNUS provided unrestricted support from reserves for BasicNeeds Basic Rights Kenya and BasicNeeds Ghana to work together to document the VSLA work for expansion in the BasicNeeds Network.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.
The verdict
MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 37
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 40
- Growth: 0
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 42%; rating input score 42
- Program expense ratio: 28.3%; rating input score 28
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -48.4%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.01; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -33.8% per year; rating input score 0; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -14.5% per year; rating input score 0; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -18.3% per year; rating input score 0; 11th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 42% of revenue deployed · 28.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 2 filed program accomplishments · $4K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 3 people listed
- Consistency: 8 of 9 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 6 filing years from 2019 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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: Mission deployment rate scored 42/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 28/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part III transfer expenses within program total did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 13/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.