Chicago Advocate Legal Nfp

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
812237071
IRS 990 coverage
2023–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2022
Location
Chicago, IL, USA
Phone
3128015918
Rating
47
Verdict
MIXED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Human Service Organizations

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$912,977
Expenses
$850,667
Assets
$239,653
Liabilities
$143,845

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • LAURENCE MOSS (STAFF ATTORNEY): $144,265 total reported compensation
  • RACHEL MIGLIORE (STAFF ATTORNEY): $103,119 total reported compensation
  • BRIAN GILBERT (FINANCIAL DIRECTORSUPERVISING ATTO): $85,470 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Legal services and legal education

What it reported doing in 2025

Direct legal representation: chicago advocate legal, nfp (cal) attorneys provide legal representation in faimly, housing and civil law matter using flate fee, income-based fees. Preventative law intiative: pli is a cal program aimed at adapting the concept of preventative law to family and housing law for cook county residents. It is a legal education project with the goal of operating legal education programs at high school, colleges, and community and social serivce organizations in cook county, Illinois

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 94% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% 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

MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up and program spending has grown recently. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 47
  • Transparency & Controls: 60
  • Accountability: 18
  • Sustainability: 29
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 42.3%; rating input score 42
  • Program expense ratio: 45.4%; rating input score 45
  • Fundraising efficiency: $69.03 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 10th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: Limited
  • Governance controls: 4 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 44
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • 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: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 6.8%; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.28; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.6; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 46.3%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 2.7% per year; rating input score 100; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 46.2% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 42.4% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 42.3% of revenue deployed · 45.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 4 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $386K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $144K · 8 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 22 of 23 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes executive pay
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 8 filed money-flow records
  • 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.
  • 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 42/100.
  • Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 8 not reported.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 45/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 14/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 49/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 2/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 10/100.