Clean Elections Minnesota
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 815377601
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2021–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2024, Form 990-N 2017
- Location
- Minneapolis, MN, USA
- Phone
- 6516339238
- Rating
- 65
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Voter Education, Registration
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $182,008
- Expenses
- $168,917
- Assets
- $90,769
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
12 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- MARY HARTNETT (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
People named in this filing
- MARY HARTNETT (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
- CONNIE LEWIS (CO-CHAIR)
- TODD OTIS (CO-CHAIR)
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
Clean elections Minnesota is a nonpartisan, non-profit organization that seeks an inclusive and healthy democracy for our state. We educate and advocate for expanded voter access, transparency, and reforms that limit the power of wealthy donors and special interests in our political process.
What it reported doing in 2024
Education forums: in 2024, clean elections Minnesota hosted two virtual educational forums that were very well attended by minnesotans, each received hundreds of registrants.first was a forum about the New York state public financing program presented by marina pina and celina avalos jaramillo of the national brennen center for justice. The conversation was co-hosted by the league of women voters of mn, common cause mn, we choose us, and fair vote mn. This conversation highlighted a groundbreaking campaign finance reform program from the state of New York--a voluntary program of small donor public financing for state elections allowing small donors a larger role in elections. The second cem education program was a conversation with barbara mcquade, author of the acclaimed book, attack from within, how disinformation is sabotaging america. Our allies, lwv, common cause, fair vote, and we choose us co-hosted the conversation. Mcquade discussed how disinformation works, how it undermines democracy and how to counter it. She called for a commitment to truth---a necessary, central tenet to democracy. Building trust in elections educational effort: cem led a major statewide education campaign to build public trust in Minnesota elections- the safe and secure elections ad campaign. We built a bipartisan, nonpartisan coalition with the secretary of state's office, lwv mn, fairvote mn, common cause mn, and we choose us. We conducted focus groups with a national firm, citizen data, to identify voters who wavered in their trust of elections and targeted 500,000 minnesotans to educate them about the clean, fair, accurate, and secure election system that Minnesota has built. The digital campaign had 2.7 million ad impressions, over 230,000 individual users, and 13,000 unique visitors to our safe and secure elections landing page with facts about voting in Minnesota. The campaign featured election judges and bipartisan election officials in compelling short videos. It outperformed national engagement benchmarks. We addressed over 200 questions voters had about how the system works. We produced videos and a voter toolkit shared by 100+ coalition partners.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- 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
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and program spending has grown recently. 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: 100
- Sustainability: 47
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 36.5%; rating input score 36
- Program expense ratio: 39.1%; rating input score 39
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 7.2%; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.54; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 27.6%; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 48.3% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 41.3% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -0.7% per year; rating input score 0; 25th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 36.5% of revenue deployed · 39.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $66K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 12 people listed
- Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2021 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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 36/100.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 39/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 52/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 40/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 12/100.