Freedom Business Alliance Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 811117210
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2020–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2019
- Location
- Houston, TX, USA
- Phone
- 8327861049
- Rating
- 88
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- International Development
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $65,055
- Expenses
- $97,777
- Assets
- $34,888
- Liabilities
- $20,877
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- KAREN SCHMIDT (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
People named in this filing
- KAREN SCHMIDT (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
- RACHEL NELSON (CHAIR)
- VANESSA BOUCHE (VICE CHAIR)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The primary exempt purpose of the freedom business alliance is to scale the freedom business movement. Our vision is a job for every person healing from modern slavery and vulnerable to exploitation.
What it reported doing in 2025
Research and training - fba built and beta-tested an online training program to equip both freedom businesses and mainstream businesses to provide a healing-centered workplace for survivors of trafficking and those at risk. Fba's training program, wellwork, brings together a decade of freedom business research and practice into an online learning platform paired with a one-on-one guide. It is designed to help both freedom businesses and mainstream employers build workplaces where survivors of trafficking and people at risk can be hired, supported, and retained long term. In 2025, fba developed the program content and beta-tested it with practitioners to refine the modules prior to a broader release, and prepared a first pilot with an employer in indonesia scheduled to begin in 2026. This work extends practices proven within freedom businesses to the much larger pool of mainstream companies that can employ survivors, which is central to fba's goal of providing a job for every person healing from exploitation. Fba also conducted its annual member review in 2025, collecting and analyzing data across the network to measure progress and guide where resources are most needed.
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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and program spending has declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 88
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 15
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 69.1%; rating input score 69
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -50.3%; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.36; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.6; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 13.8%; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -6.4% per year; rating input score 0; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 16.8% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 9.8% per year; rating input score 100; 70th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 69.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $68K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 10 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2020 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 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.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 12/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 26/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 7/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 9/100.