Family Legal Care Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
133910567
IRS 990 coverage
2009–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
New York, NY, USA
Phone
6466139633
Rating
79
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Emergency Assistance

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$3,851,112
Expenses
$4,061,574
Assets
$2,089,695
Liabilities
$396,375

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

Leadership & pay

25 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • SARAH NOLAN (CEO (JOINED 7/25))
  • CATHY CRAMER (CEO (THROUGH 8/25))

Highest reported compensation

  • CATHY CRAMER (CEO (THROUGH 8/25)): $193,500 total reported compensation
  • KRISTIN PULKKINEN (CHIEF DEVEL. & EXT. AFF. OFFICER): $170,832 total reported compensation
  • RACHEL D ANDRON (CPO (THROUGH 9/25)): $168,276 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Family legal care is an award winning non-profit dedicated to empowering unrepresented litigants so that they may successfully self-advocate in the New York family courts.

What it reported doing in 2024

Digital justice initiative: family legal care is at the forefront of developing tools that leverage the power of technology to increase access to justice. Our family law navigator tool delivers family law information customized to each person's legal case and situation quickly, anonymously, and for free. In just 2-3 minutes, family law navigator provides legal information that can be a helpful starting point for people who are beginning to address their family law issue. Our guided court forms make it easy for litigants to understand, complete, and upload essential court documents from any web-connected device without a computer or extra pdf-editing software. Our family law explained digital shorts, a video series that uses easy-to-understand language to distill complex family law topics into short, digestible pieces for people who learn best by video, like people with low literacy levels, or auditory learners. Digital justice tools were used over 7,500 times this year: 2,429 people used the family law navigator; 2,464 guided court forms were completed; and our family law explained videos have received 2,671 views since their release in november 2024, the equivalent of 54 hours of watch time.

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

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 75
  • Transparency & Controls: 79
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 22
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 82.3%; rating input score 82
  • Program expense ratio: 78%; rating input score 78
  • Fundraising efficiency: $8.76 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • 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: 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: -5.5%; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.51; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.19; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 13.1%; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 9.3% per year; rating input score 100; 61st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 6.5% per year; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 6.3% per year; rating input score 100; 41st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 82.3% of revenue deployed · 78% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 18 of 18 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 9 filed program accomplishments · $3.2M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $194K · 25 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 30 of 30 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 16 filing years from 2009 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
  • 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.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 33/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 19/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 18/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 22/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 45/100.