Community Legal Aid Society Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 516000158
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-T 2025
- Location
- Wilmington, DE, USA
- Phone
- 3025750660
- Rating
- 85
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Public Interest Law
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $13,359,779
- Expenses
- $12,785,461
- Assets
- $7,780,463
- Liabilities
- $2,058,203
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
18 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- LAUREN RUSSELL ESQ (PRESIDENT)
- KENISHA RINGGOLD ESQ (PRESIDENT ELECT/VP)
- DANIEL ATKINS (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- DANIEL ATKINS (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $272,193 total reported compensation
- KATHRYN VAN AMERONGEN (ATTORNEY): $202,047 total reported compensation
- TARA BOOS (MANAGING ATTORNEY): $199,683 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Clasi provides free civil legal services to people with disabilities; people with low incomes; victims of housing discrimination; older citizens (60 and over); victims of domestic violence; and immigrant victims of crime, abuse and neglect.
What it reported doing in 2025
Clasi provides free civil legal services to individuals whose income does not exceed 125% of the federal poverty guidlines, individuals over 60, and victims of crime. Work in the poverty law program focuses on homelessness prevention; maintainence of income benefits, food benefits, and healthcare benefits; family law, especially in cases of domestic violence; and assitance for immigrant victims of crime, especially domestic violence, sexual assult, abuse and neglect.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 63% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 96% 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
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 total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 77
- Transparency & Controls: 91
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 32
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 75%; rating input score 75
- Program expense ratio: 78.3%; rating input score 78
- Fundraising efficiency: $69.51 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 5 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 83
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Pass
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 76th 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: 9 of 9 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: 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: 4.3%; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.61; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.26; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 10.9%; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 10.5% per year; rating input score 100; 69th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 9.4% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 7.6% per year; rating input score 100; 54th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 75% of revenue deployed · 78.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $10M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $272K · 18 people listed · 5 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 2 contractors listed · $404K reported
- Consistency: 36 of 36 current checks pass
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 16 filing years from 2010 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 7 filed money-flow records
- 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.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 42/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 16/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 21/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 44/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.