Chicago Votes
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 460545127
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2014–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Chicago, IL, USA
- Phone
- 3127539117
- Rating
- 68
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Voter Education, Registration
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,183,890
- Expenses
- $1,474,482
- Assets
- $949,525
- Liabilities
- $48,676
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Troy Alim (President)
- Jennifer Dean (Co-Executive Director)
- Steven Valles (Co-Executive Director)
Highest reported compensation
- Steven Valles (Co-Executive Director): $199,847 total reported compensation
- Jennifer Dean (Co-Executive Director): $173,474 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Chicago Votes is a non-partisan, non-profit organization building a more inclusive democracy by putting power in the hands of young Chicagoans. We're engaging and developing a new generation of leaders by opening the doors of government, through civic education, to young people from all corners of the city. We're creating a civic culture to make Chicago and Illinois a better place to be young, and in the process we're making democracy FUN.
What it reported doing in 2025
Youth Leadership Development - Youth organizers were trained through internship and fellowship programs. These organizers registered voters and mobilized volunteers.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 96% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 89% 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
SUPPORTED - Most voting board members are independent and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of total spending goes to programs and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 58
- Transparency & Controls: 64
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 18
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 70.5%; rating input score 71
- Program expense ratio: 56.6%; rating input score 57
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 85.7%; rating input score 86; 3rd 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: 69.4%; rating input score 69; 36th 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 8 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: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -24.5%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.64; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 25.3%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 14.8% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 14.6% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 19.3% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 70.5% of revenue deployed · 56.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $835K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $200K · 11 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 27 of 29 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 11 filing years from 2014 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 4 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 3 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.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 57/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 5/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 31/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 11/100.
- 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.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 43/100.