Child Poverty Action Lab
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 473863079
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2016–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2015
- Location
- Dallas, TX, USA
- Phone
- 4693201435
- Rating
- 81
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $16,665,295
- Expenses
- $16,780,683
- Assets
- $27,296,034
- Liabilities
- $2,472,492
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
24 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- ALAN COHEN (President & CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- ALAN COHEN (President & CEO): $335,743 total reported compensation
- ALEXA ROGERS (SR. DIRECTOR): $237,091 total reported compensation
- SOPHIE PHILLIPS (CHIEF EXTERNAL OFFICER): $234,999 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 child poverty action lab exists to reduce child poverty in dallas by 50% within a single generation.
What it reported doing in 2025
CPAL operates as an unofficial research and development department for Dallas, rethinking how data can be integrated into public systems, community programs, and neighborhood life to break cycles of intergenerational poverty. Guided by evidence, CPAL focuses on impactful strategies aligned with five 'big bets' for driving economic mobility: Benefits Delivery, Maternal Health, Housing, Criminal Justice, and Safety.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 91% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 69% for direct work, and 31% for grants.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 84
- Transparency & Controls: 72
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 32
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 87.2%; rating input score 87
- Program expense ratio: 86.1%; rating input score 86
- Fundraising efficiency: $29.15 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 16th 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: 97.9%; rating input score 98; 38th 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 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- 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: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -0.7%; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.63; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.09; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 10.5%; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 29.9% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 27% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 28.1% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 87.2% of revenue deployed · 86.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 16 of 16 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $14.5M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $336K · 24 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $2.8M reported
- Consistency: 31 of 32 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 8 filing years from 2016 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 51 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 43 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.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 18/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Document-retention policy not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 44/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 22/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.