Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 680087976
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2012–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- San Rafael, CA, USA
- Phone
- 4154575025
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Legal Services
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $2,196,796
- Expenses
- $1,875,577
- Assets
- $3,417,343
- Liabilities
- $659,983
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
9 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Caroline Peattie (Executive Director)
- Azalea Renfield (President)
- Lou Enge (Vice President)
Highest reported compensation
- Caroline Peattie (Executive Director): $143,258 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
We provide fair housing, pre-purchase, and mortgage foreclosure prevention services in Marin, Sonoma, and Solano counties, with advisory training in other counties. Our services to tenants and homeowners are available at no charge in English and Spanish.
What it reported doing in 2024
Fair Housing Counseling, Investigation, and Education: Screen and counsel clients on issues of housing discrimination and refer people to appropriate resources; Investigate claims of discrimination and assist clients with filing administrative complaints or lawsuits; Educate housing providers on fair housing laws and appropriate housing practices; Offer fair housing information and education to the larger community; Conduct systemic fair housing investigations and where appropriate, file administrative complaints or lawsuits. Fair housing foreclosure prevention and pre-purchase counseling and education: Screen and counsel clients related to foreclosure prevention and refer people to appropriate resources; assist homeowners with available options (loan modifications, short sales, forbearance, refinance, foreclosure, etc.); provide seminars on foreclosure prevention, fair lending, and financial management. Conduct pre-purchase education classes, including certification for first-time homebuyers, and counsel pre-purchase clients. Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH): Conduct affirmatively furthering fair housing activities, including providing education to the community, service organizations, and jurisdictions offering community development block grant funds to community groups, as well as speaking to city and county councils on housing policy and how best to promote greater integration and advance housing opportunity for people protected by fair housing law.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- 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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown and reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 72
- Transparency & Controls: 90
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 60
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 68.2%; rating input score 68
- Program expense ratio: 77.1%; rating input score 77
- Fundraising efficiency: $63.15 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
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: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 8 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: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 14.6%; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.82; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.19; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 7.6%; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 8.3% per year; rating input score 100; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 9.3% per year; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 16.8% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 68.2% of revenue deployed · 77.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.4M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $143K · 9 people listed
- Consistency: 27 of 27 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 12 filing years from 2012 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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 — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 59/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 39/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 45/100.