Harness Community

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
851124839
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2021
Location
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Phone
2134080506
Rating
65
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Intergroup, Race Relations

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$3,087,616
Expenses
$2,399,964
Assets
$2,139,307
Liabilities
$73,056

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

11 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • MIRIAM PAULA FOGELSON (PRESIDENT)
  • KELLEY MCGREGOR (VICE PRESIDENT OF DEVELOPMENT)
  • MAKKAH ALI (VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS)

Highest reported compensation

  • MIRIAM PAULA FOGELSON (PRESIDENT): $216,106 total reported compensation
  • MAKKAH ALI (VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS): $162,190 total reported compensation
  • KELLEY MCGREGOR (VICE PRESIDENT OF DEVELOPMENT): $160,122 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Harness is a community of activists, artists, and entertainment industry leaders who believe that storytelling shapes our world. We build community to educate, inspire, and care for one another. We convene to envision and amplify the stories that define a more just future. We create that future through our art, influence, and actions.

What it reported doing in 2024

Educational salonsbuilding on priorities that emerged from the community dinners, harness organized two salons to mobilize artists and influencers to shape the public narrative on bodily autonomy. In partnership with the aclu and harness community experts, the New York city salon, moderated by america ferrera, featured renee bracey sherman of wetestify, activist and author raquel willis, chase strangio - deputy director for transgender justice with the aclu, and j.j. Straight - deputy director of the liberty division of the national aclu. The la salon, co-hosted by laverne cox, aimed at transforming storytelling in tv and film. Both events saw 60 participants committing to over 150 actions to advance narrative strategy and advocacy campaigns, focusing on addressing escalating attacks on transgender rights and reproductive justice in the conversation.harness retreatover three days in october, our annual harness retreat took place at 1440 multiversity in the California redwoods, hosting 110 artists and movement leaders. The retreat, co-created with participants, prioritized fostering a sense of belonging, in-person connection, inspiration, strategizing, and dreaming a vision of a liberated future. The retreat is where the foundational relationships of the harness community are formed, where we unearth innovative collaborations and where we identify the priorities that drive our future work. 98% of attendees stated that the retreat met or exceeded their expectations.a few of the collaborations sparked during harness retreat weekend: - strategizing on narrative change interventions for the 2024 election - organizing a trip to the u.s.-mexico border to advance conversations around immigration reform - expanding the network of native voices represented in hollywood - creating music and art installations showcasing the work of bipoc women across the rural south - launching a campaign to tackle pay and budget transparency in film and television - working with bipoc artists to deepen work on criminal justice reform, racial and gender justice, and reproductive justice

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 99% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 97% 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 - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 53
  • Transparency & Controls: 75
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 57
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 49.8%; rating input score 50
  • Program expense ratio: 64.1%; rating input score 64
  • Fundraising efficiency: $10.56 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd 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: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • 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: 22.3%; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.89; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 75; 75th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 27.6%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -9.8% per year; rating input score 0; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -25.1% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -6.2% per year; rating input score 0; 3rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 49.8% of revenue deployed · 64.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $1.5M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $216K · 11 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 31 of 31 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2022 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.

Key Signals

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

  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 50/100.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 39/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 33/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 7/100.