International Consortium of Investigative Journalists Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 814739107
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2017–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Washington, DC, USA
- Phone
- 2028083310
- Rating
- 68
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Promotion of International Understanding
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $8,939,849
- Expenses
- $6,333,880
- Assets
- $13,009,732
- Liabilities
- $693,824
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
14 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- GERARD RYLE (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- GERARD RYLE (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $315,891 total reported compensation
- FERGUS SHIEL (MANAGING EDITOR): $252,044 total reported compensation
- MARYSE SULIMMA (CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER): $223,358 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
International consortium of investigative journalists, inc.'s (icij) mission is to show people how the world really works through stories that rock the world; forcing positive change.
What it reported doing in 2025
Technology: our ambitious investigations rely on datashare, the open-source platform we built. Today, it is used not just by icij but by academics, government agencies, ngos and newsrooms worldwide. In 2025, we made datashare faster, more reliable and easier to use. We upgraded its underlying infrastructure to support the latest search technologies and bundled required components into the installer so journalists no longer need to configure additional software to get started. Research and data: icij maintains a secure research hub of 40 million documents for use by our partners. We also provide public access to about one million records in our offshore leaks and international medical devices databases. In 2025 alone, more than 3.8 million unique users viewed 14.4 million pages in our offshore leaks database.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 75% 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 most voting board members are independent. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and the filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 65
- Transparency & Controls: 47
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 63
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 59.9%; rating input score 60
- Program expense ratio: 81.9%; rating input score 82
- Fundraising efficiency: $11.24 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 40; 40th 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: Scored; rating input score 0
- Grant itemization coverage: Scored; rating input score 0
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Scored; rating input score 0
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 9 of 9 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: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 29.2%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.05; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 25.2%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 9.8% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 2.8% per year; rating input score 100; 21st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 9.3% per year; rating input score 100; 55th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 59.9% of revenue deployed · 81.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $5.2M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $316K · 14 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 3 contractors listed · $366K reported
- Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, executive pay, and related organizations
- Filing history: 9 filing years from 2017 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 9 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 40/100.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Related-party transparency scored 0/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 58/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 11/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 59/100.