Fix the Court

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
861840317
IRS 990 coverage
2021–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2023, Form 990-N 2021
Location
Brooklyn, NY, USA
Phone
2027804990
Rating
75
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Public, Society Benefit N.E.C.

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$201,039
Expenses
$263,319
Assets
$33,776
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

4 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • JOSHUA COHEN (BOARD PRESIDENT)
  • MICHELLE KUPPERSMITH (BOARD VICE PRESIDENT)
  • GABRIEL ROTH (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • GABRIEL ROTH (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $175,441 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Fix the court is a nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) organization that educates the american people about, and advocates for, non-ideological "fixes" that would make the federal courts, and primarily the u.s. Supreme court, more modern, more open, and more accountable. It does this by researching the ethical lapses of judges and justices and by educating the press and public about why reform is needed.

What it reported doing in 2025

Education: fix the court educated the press and the public on the ways in which the u.s. Supreme court and the rest of the federal judiciary has chosen to exempt itself from best practices in modern judicial ethics and uncovered numerous examples of times when supreme court justices and lower court judges have failed to live up to their respective ethics codes, from missed recusals to untoward gifts. The organization publicized the ins and outs of the broadcast policies in federal courtrooms around the country, with our requests for livestreaming often pushing the courts to expand access. Fix the court located and published the audio files of the supreme court's opinion announcement summaries from the ot24 term, which had not been publicly accessible before we found and released them, and advocated for more leeway within judicial ethics rules for judges to speak out against the rising threats leveled against them. The court's executive director was quoted or cited in more than 300 news stories last year, on topics ranging from the justices' out-of-court events to their financial disclosure practices to the need to increase security spending branchwide.

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 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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 85
  • Transparency & Controls: 74
  • Accountability: 79
  • Sustainability: 15
  • Growth: 40

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 80.1%; rating input score 80
  • Fundraising efficiency: $6.7 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • 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: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -31%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.13; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 66.6%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 8.8% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -4% per year; rating input score 0; 10th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -26.7% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 80.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 3 of 3 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $211K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $175K · 4 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 21 of 21 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2021 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 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.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 27/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 7/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 8/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 1/100.