Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
521231278
IRS 990 coverage
2014–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2011
Location
Washington, DC, USA
Phone
2025963597
Rating
74
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Standard
Sector
Public Finance, Taxation, Monetary Policy

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$10,368,338
Expenses
$6,703,049
Assets
$13,498,045
Liabilities
$1,568,001

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

Leadership & pay

46 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • MAYA MACGUINEAS (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • MAYA MACGUINEAS (PRESIDENT): $672,231 total reported compensation
  • MARC L GOLDWEIN (SVP AND SENIOR POLICY DIRECTOR): $460,145 total reported compensation
  • MICHAEL V MURPHY (SVP AND CHIEF OF STAFF): $342,872 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

A nonpartisan, nonprofit organization committed to educating the public, policymakers, and the media about issues that have significant fiscal policy impact. Our bipartisan leadership comprises some of the nation's leading budget experts, including many past heads of the house and senate budget committees, the congressional budget office, the office of management and budget, and the government accountability office.

What it reported doing in 2025

Initiatives - the organization develops key initiatives to address pressing policy issues. During 2025, the organization had two active initiatives, fixus and health savers. Fixus convenes diverse stakeholders and advances research with the goal of understanding the root causes of our growing national divisions and how they can be addressed. Health savers is a collaborative research project to develop bold policy solutions to lower health care costs.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 97% 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 - A large share of total spending goes to programs and the filed numbers largely add up. 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: 68
  • Transparency & Controls: 74
  • Accountability: 80
  • Sustainability: 63
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 57.4%; rating input score 57
  • Program expense ratio: 87.1%; rating input score 87
  • Fundraising efficiency: $32.13 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th 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: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 97.2%; rating input score 97; 27th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 5 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 56
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 35.4%; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.01; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.12; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 38.9%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 8.1% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 13.5% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 15.8% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 57.4% of revenue deployed · 87.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 35 of 36 board members independent · 5 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $5.8M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $672K · 46 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $151K reported
  • Consistency: 30 of 30 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 12 filing years from 2014 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 8 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • 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: Mission deployment rate scored 57/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 9 not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 52/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 1/100.