Helping Educate to Advance the Rights of the Deaf

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
275032142
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2019, Form 990-N 2016
Location
Washington, DC, USA
Phone
2023810112
Rating
63
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Legal Services

Reported finances

Revenue
$995,749
Expenses
$661,676
Assets
$1,568,991
Liabilities
$31,400

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

Leadership & pay

4 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • DUSTIN GIBSON (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • KAJ KRAUS (OPERATIONS DIRECTOR): $92,366 total reported compensation
  • TRINITY MCFADDEN (SECRETARY): $92,126 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Heard is a cross-disability abolitionist organization that unites across identities, communities, movements, and borders to end ableism, racism, capitalism, and all other forms of oppression and violence. Heard supports disabled people and others who experience ableism by rejecting disability hierarchies and rigid definitions of disability, and by recognizing deaf people as part of disability communities. Heard works to increase our collective capacity to identify, understand, and challenge oppression through grassroots advocacy, community organizing, peer support, mutual aid, education, and research.

What it reported doing in 2025

Incarcerated advocacy: heard advocates for deaf/disabled defendants, currently incarcerated people, and their loved ones across the united states by organizing for the release of deaf/disabled elders; connecting incarcerated people with resources and organizations for information about their rights as a disabled incarcerated person, re-entry support, political education, and more through heard's prison correspondence efforts; supporting deaf/disabled people facing criminal charges and their loved ones to navigate the criminal legal system with increased access, power, and agency; advocating for access to telecommunications (videophone, captioned telephones, etc.) in prisons and jails; educating attorneys who have deaf/disabled clients to better understand how disability impacts their attorney-client relationship and their clients' cases; and, providing financial support to multiply-marginalized deaf/disabled incarcerated people through heard's commissary fund and heard's prison visitation fund.reentry support: heard offers reentry support to deaf/disabled community members who are recently released from prison. This support by and for deaf/disabled people is trauma-informed and inclusive of the many ways we communicate and heal. It includes: peer support spaces to heal, grow, and develop without punitive institutional influences; opportunities to join peers to learn about carceral systems and reduce chances of reincarceration, develop conflict resolution and harm reduction skills, and develop skills to become peer educators, community interpreters and/or facilitators; assistance and financial support to access housing, food, clothing, and other urgent needs upon release; access to technology (e.g., cell phones, tablets, laptops) and technology training in asl to connect with community and to increase exposure to information in asl; and, advocacy and assistance navigating parole/probation/supervision requirements.movement building: heard provides educational offerings for currently and formerly incarcerated people, their loved ones, legal advocates, disabled communities, and accomplices. We run a group of formerly incarcerated disabled/deaf people, and their loved ones, who are impacted by prison and policing systems that is called the public education team (pet). Each round of pet includes four-to-six months of gatherings where we develop our skills as peer educators, learn about systems of policing, explore the history of abolition and prisons, and learn conflict resolution and harm reduction skills. Community members who join pet are paid for their time in learning with and from each other. Heard also offers presentations and workshops for deaf/disabled community members, movement organizations, attorneys, legal workers, advocates, universities, nonprofits, schools, and more on topics related to our work.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 96% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 86% 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 program spending has grown recently. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 38
  • Transparency & Controls: 94
  • Accountability: 55
  • Sustainability: 67
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 35.2%; rating input score 35
  • Program expense ratio: 49.3%; rating input score 49
  • Fundraising efficiency: $6.35 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 66.7%; rating input score 67; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 33.5%; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.37; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 27.9%; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 13% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 22.3% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 26.3% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 35.2% of revenue deployed · 49.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 2 of 3 board members independent · 3 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $326K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $92K · 4 people listed
  • Consistency: 26 of 26 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 5 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.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 35/100.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 49/100.
  • Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 22/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 9/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 53/100.