Black Belt Justice Center

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
454441783
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2018
Location
Washington, DC, USA
Phone
2024869857
Rating
75
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,314,449
Expenses
$819,570
Assets
$1,426,854
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

6 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Tracy McCurty (Executive Director)

Highest reported compensation

  • Tracy McCurty (Executive Director): $130,815 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 the organization is to equip, educate and empower black farmer initiatives and preserve the sustainability of the farm land.

What it reported doing in 2024

Led multigenerational, multiracial advocacy efforts resulting in Black legacy farmers receiving $1.6B out of the $2.2B allocated under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 providing financial assistance payments to farmers determined to have experienced discrimination prior to January 1, 2021 in USDA farm lending programs. Additionally, the organization assisted 25 Black legacy farmers with tax advisement services pertaining to their federal tax filings. Furthermore, the organization launched the Lowcountry Sweetgrass Restoration and Human Sustainability Initiative (LSHSI) to address the man-made scarcity of wild sweetgrass caused by hyper-development, monopolization, and privatization of public lands in the South Carolina Lowcountry. Combined, these encroachments on public lands have severely limited access to the plant material needed by legacy basket artists and harvesters to preserve their ecocultural traditions.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 83% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 92% 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 - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and some filed totals do not add up.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 68
  • Transparency & Controls: 79
  • Accountability: 78
  • Sustainability: 72
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 62.4%; rating input score 62
  • Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 83.3%; rating input score 83; 1st percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 77.8%; rating input score 78; 34th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 80%; rating input score 80; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 37.6%; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.74; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 16%; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 27.6% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 31% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 60.3% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 62.4% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 4 of 5 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $820K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $131K · 6 people listed
  • Consistency: 35 of 37 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 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.

Key Signals

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

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 21/100.