1St Amendment Partnership
Legal name: First Amendment Partnership
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 471380784
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2014–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Washington, DC, United States
- Phone
- (202) 682-1201
- Rating
- 85
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Alliance/Advocacy
- Affiliation
- Religious (unspecified)
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,649,682
- Expenses
- $1,790,355
- Assets
- $1,668,340
- Liabilities
- $82,259
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
9 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- TIMOTHY B SCHULTZ ESQ (PRESIDENT/EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- TIMOTHY B SCHULTZ ESQ (PRESIDENT/EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $295,532 total reported compensation
- KERRY TROUP (COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR): $278,388 total reported compensation
- LANCE KINZER ESQ DIRECTOR OF (POLICY AND GOVT RELATIONS): $191,250 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 mission of the 1st Amendment Partnership is to promote and protect religious freedom for people of all faiths. Rev. Dr. Jo Anne Lyon is the Vice President of Wesley Seminary in Marion, Indiana. Lyon was previously the General Superintendent of the Wesleyan Church. Lyon was elected as the first woman General Superintendent at the June 2008 General Conference. In 2012 she was elected as the only General Superintendent of the denomination and in 2016 she was honored with the title of General Superintendent Emerita. Lyon was ordained as a minister in the Wesleyan Church in 1996 the same year that she founded World Hope International, an organization desiring to alleviate suffering and injustice through education, enterprise, and community health. She serves on the National Association of Evangelicals Boa.
What it reported doing in 2024
Legislative education and outreach support program - the legislative education and outreach support program unites diverse faith groups so faith communities can share information and have the best public policy intelligence drawn from on-the-ground engagements. The program allows faith communities to exert their influence as part of the coalition represented by 1ap.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 99% 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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 96
- Transparency & Controls: 83
- Accountability: 77
- Sustainability: 27
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 93.9%; rating input score 94
- Fundraising efficiency: $99.36 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 86; 86th 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: 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 44
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -8.5%; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.93; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 52.5%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 8.7% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 7.8% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 22.2% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: Mission, programs, and operating context captured from the official website.
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 93.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 4 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $1.7M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $296K · 9 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $162K reported
- Consistency: 32 of 32 current checks pass
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 11 filing years from 2014 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 5 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.
- 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.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 8 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 19/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 40/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 2/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 52/100.