Freedom From Religion Foundation

Legal name: Freedom from Religion Foundation Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
391302520
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2025
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Madison, WI, USA
Phone
6082568900
Rating
73
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Christianity
Affiliation
Christianity

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$15,351,878
Expenses
$10,832,635
Assets
$33,074,010
Liabilities
$1,383,911

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

Leadership & pay

15 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • ANNIE LAURIE GAYLOR (CO-PRESIDENT)
  • DAN BARKER (CO-PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • PATRICK ELLIOTT (LEGAL DIRECTOR): $214,221 total reported compensation
  • ELIZABETH CAVELL (DEPUTY LEGAL DIRECTOR): $182,834 total reported compensation
  • SAM GROVER (SENIOR LITIGATION COUNSEL): $162,031 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

The Freedom From Religion Foundation works as an umbrella for people who are free from religion, committed to advancing their mission/purpose (the full purpose text is truncated in the provided crawl snippet). The Freedom for Religion Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, (“Foundation” or “FFRF”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting it through our compliance with this policy. This policy describes the types of information we may collect from you or which you may provide when you visit the website, ffrf.org (“Website”), and our mobile applications, and our social media platform sites (collectively, “Services”). It also describes our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting, and disclosing that information. It applies to information we collect from the Services, and email, texts, and other electronic messages between you and the...

What it reported doing in 2025

Lawsuits challenging unconstitutional entanglements of religion and government, government endorsement or promotion of religion. Ffrf filed 6 new lawsuits, including one in state court in Illinois, where, barely a month after filing a challenge of a ten commandments monument on courthouse property, the case was favorably settled when jefferson county removed the monolith. Five new challenges of state laws requiring posting of the ten commandments were filed with a coalition representing a variety of religious and nonreligious plaintiffs, including two in Arkansas federal court and three in Texas federal court. Ffrf filed suit in october 2025, on behalf of ffrf member james reel, a veteran, who wanted to continue serving his country by becoming a poll worker but was required to take a religious oath. Ffrf and a coalition filed suit in state court in may 2025 on behalf of residents to halt the installation of two statues costing taxpayers at least $850,000 depicting catholic saints at a new public safety building in quincy, mass. In january 2025, ffrf filed a state lawsuit in dane county, wis., on behalf of three homeowners, challenging a tax law created to benefit two extremely lucrative church-owned properties designed for student renters. Additionally ffrf is defending an appeals court victory won in 2018 prohibiting school board members from opening public meetings with prayer in chino valley, calif. This litigation joined ongoing lawsuits including one filed with a coalition in federal court in 2024 challenging a Louisiana law requiring ten commandments to be displayed in each public school classroom and a case in federal court in Arkansas challenging a ten commandments monument at the state capitol. Additionally two Oklahoma cases were dismissed: one challenging a mandate to incorporate the bible into all curricula, and another against the state virtual charter school board, after violations were ended.ffrf responded to 1,892 reports of constitutional violations, sent more than 603 formal complaint letters plus 870 follow-ups to violating government actors, mostly in public schools, resulting in 212 significant constitutional victories. In addition, ffrf filed amicus briefs in 7 other state/church lawsuits.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 80% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 89% 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.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 66
  • Transparency & Controls: 67
  • Accountability: 88
  • Sustainability: 71
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 60.8%; rating input score 61
  • Program expense ratio: 83%; rating input score 83
  • Fundraising efficiency: $11.73 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 10th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Pass
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: 1 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 12
    • Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
    • Requires narrative reports: Fail
    • Conducts field audits: Fail
    • May suspend future funding: Fail
    • Requires financial reports: Fail
    • Conducts site visits: Fail
    • Requires grant agreements: Fail
    • May require repayment: Fail
  • Grant itemization coverage: 87.7%; rating input score 88; 27th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 80%; rating input score 80; 13th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • 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: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 29.4%; rating input score 83; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.05; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 10.2%; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 11.5% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 10.6% per year; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 8% per year; rating input score 100; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: Mission, programs, and operating context captured from the official website.
  • Where the money goes: 60.8% of revenue deployed · 83% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 10 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $9M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $214K · 15 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 35 of 37 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
  • Schedules: 10 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 15 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 9 filed related-organization links
  • 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 — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight: 7 of 8 not reported.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 38/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 23/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Foreign grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.