Firstrepair
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 863191322
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2022–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Evanston, IL, USA
- Phone
- 8475638579
- Rating
- 70
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Research Institutes and Public Policy Analysis
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,212,478
- Expenses
- $1,170,809
- Assets
- $670,325
- Liabilities
- $45,474
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- ROBIN RUE SIMMONS (Executive Director & Board President)
Highest reported compensation
- ROBIN RUE SIMMONS (Executive Director & Board President): $208,211 total reported compensation
- VICTORIA SHIRE (Chief Operating Officer): $156,818 total reported compensation
- ELISA WALKER (Program Director & Board Member): $37,882 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Firstrepair envisions a just society where black people are liberated, thriving, and repaired. Firstrepair advances local reparations, nationally by supporting community organizations, local government and other relevant institutions and bodies in successfully implementing tangible reparations through local efforts.together with our partners, we help local leaders explore, plan, and take concrete steps to advance reparations. We are the primary resource for legislative bodies, committees, taskforces and commissions, elected leaders, reparations practitioners, seeking information, support, and community for policy solutions that advance a repaired world. We are also the go-to partner for community advocates, interfaith and lay leaders, academics and researchers, activists and racial justice leaders committed to reparatory justice. Our services include: (1) strategic advising, both one-on-one strategic advising in closed sessions for elected leaders and testimony for public sessions, adv
What it reported doing in 2025
The national symposium for state and local reparations is the signature event for the local reparations movement. In 2025 the symposium brought together more than 275 attendees from over 60 localities and more than 80 reparations initiatives to hear from over 50 speakers in 30 sessions on topics including policy design, interfaith partnerships, technology, communication, legal strategies and allyship. The 2025 keynote speaker was macarthur fellow tonika lewis johnson. Attendees also participated in a bus tour, a town hall session, live toolkit sessions, reports from each of the four regions, and an awards dinner recognizing 11 significant leaders and achievements of the past year.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 98% 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: 67
- Transparency & Controls: 65
- Accountability: 83
- Sustainability: 32
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 70.5%; rating input score 71
- Program expense ratio: 72.7%; rating input score 73
- Fundraising efficiency: $7.95 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 28; 28th 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: 77.8%; rating input score 78; 20th 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: 3.4%; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.57; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.07; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 34.4%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 24.1% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 16.5% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 6.7% per year; rating input score 100; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 70.5% of revenue deployed · 72.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 7 of 9 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $851K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $208K · 10 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 29 of 29 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
- 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.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 28/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 40/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 28/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 6/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 40/100.