Dc Bar Pro Bono Center

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
521574217
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Washington, DC, USA
Phone
2027374700
Rating
77
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$6,388,636
Expenses
$6,134,763
Assets
$10,168,030
Liabilities
$1,786,087

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

29 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Robert Spagnoletti (Executive Vice President)
  • Kelli Neptune (Executive Director)
  • Shaun Snyder (President)
  • Sadina Montani (President-Elect)

Highest reported compensation

  • Robert Spagnoletti (Executive Vice President): $737,859 total reported compensation
  • Margarita Lorenzetti (Chief Financial Officer): $390,582 total reported compensation
  • Kelli Neptune (Executive Director): $315,026 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center provides free legal services through pro bono lawyers to low-income individuals, nonprofit organizations and small businesses primarily in the District of Columbia. The Pro Bono Center also recruits and trains lawyers and law firms to provide business and transactional legal services to community-based non-profit organizations and small, disadvantaged businesses.

What it reported doing in 2024

Legal Assistance for Low-Income Individuals: The D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center recruits, trains, and supports volunteer lawyers who provide legal information, advice, and/or representation in housing, family law, public benefits, personal injury defense, bankruptcy, employment, immigration, future planning and probate, and consumer law matters. In FY25, the Center provided ongoing full representation to 259 new clients on civil legal matters. The Center also provided legal advice and referrals at community-based clinics where 764 individuals received legal assistance on a range of civil legal issues and an additional 465 individuals received assistance on immigration matters. Through the Landlord Tenant Legal Assistance Network, the Center conducted 3,379 intakes to be routed to network partners; and through the Family Law Assistance Network, the Center assisted 474 individuals in Superior Court domestic relations proceedings. Finally, the Center maintains Superior Court-based resource centers to serve pro se litigants in landlord-tenant matters. In FY25, these centers served 1,269 people.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 95% 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 available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 79
  • Transparency & Controls: 65
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 45
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 81.4%; rating input score 81
  • Program expense ratio: 81.7%; rating input score 82
  • Fundraising efficiency: $18.77 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Missing
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • 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%; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.66; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.18; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 24.4%; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 15.7% per year; rating input score 100; 79th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 8.3% per year; rating input score 100; 61st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 9.3% per year; rating input score 100; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 81.4% of revenue deployed · 81.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 20 of 20 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $5M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $738K · 29 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 27 of 27 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 6 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.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 57/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 48/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 55/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 9/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 47/100.