Digital Rights Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
932685113
IRS 990 coverage
2024–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2023
Location
Washington, DC, USA
Phone
2025601977
Rating
74
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
International Human Rights

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$524,787
Expenses
$320,141
Assets
$669,101
Liabilities
$125

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

Leadership & pay

4 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • NIGHAT DAD (PRESIDENT/EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • NIGHAT DAD (PRESIDENT/EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $149,505 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Digital rights foundation is a registered research-based advocacy non-governmental organization focusing on information and communication technologies (icts) to support democratic processes and digital governance.

What it reported doing in 2025

Digital rights foundation aims to strengthen protections for human rights defenders (hrds), with a focus on women's rights, in digital spaces through policy advocacy & digital security awareness-raising. In addition, one of our aims at the foundation is also to protect women from work and cyber-harassment that they have to deal with throughout their lives. We make them aware of their rights.with growing privacy concerns in digital spaces, drf seeks to increase awareness about privacy issues & defend the right to privacy by researching, monitoring, and reporting the tactics around surveillance. To rally with other actors for strong legal protection for privacy in the country and to raise our voice against dictating censorship policies, we intend to propose viable solutions to the government.

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 - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of total spending goes to programs. 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: 61
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 70
  • Sustainability: 70
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 56.5%; rating input score 56
  • Program expense ratio: 90.4%; rating input score 90
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 75%; rating input score 75; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 39%; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.09; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 46.7%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 45.6% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 54% per year; rating input score 100; 96th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 66.8% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 56.5% of revenue deployed · 90.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 3 of 4 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $289K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $150K · 4 people listed
  • Consistency: 19 of 19 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 2 filing years from 2024 to 2025
  • 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.

  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 56/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 2/100.