Justice and Recovery Advocates Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
812289414
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2019, Form 990-N 2015
Location
Thurmont, MD, USA
Phone
3012713620
Rating
71
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Alliance/Advocacy Organizations

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$354,388
Expenses
$319,174
Assets
$40,139
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Julie Magers (President)
  • Debbie Fling (Vice President)

People named in this filing

  • Julie Magers (President)
  • Debbie Fling (Vice President)
  • Carrie Beck (Treasurer)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

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

Overview

Mission

Provide programming support education and resources to systems-involved individuals that suffer from mental health and substance use disorders and their families including re-entry case management services health and wellness programming peer support outreach harm reduction services and judicial intervention. Advocate and create awareness for the community and leadership on issues that affect our constituency including the impact of incarceration mental health and substance use disorders productive and helpful programming and diversion. Program Activities: Family assistance services Re-entry and preparedness assistance case management for systems-involved individuals: assistance with SUD mental health treatment housing social services employment. Health and wellness recovery and re-entry programming for systems-involved and recovering individuals. Public awareness projects related to our constituency and community partnerships.

What it reported doing in 2025

We provide peer recovery support and outreach services through a street-based outreach program going out into the streets to meet people where they are and provide basic needs resources referrals peer re-entry support harm reduction training and access to Narcan as well as participating in community outreach events. We also provide direct and one on one peer recovery support services within the State of Maryland. We also provide peer recovery support group programming within treatment and correctional facilities. This service contracts trained individuals with lived experience working with individuals in need and their families providing support resources guidance and intervention. We provide Narcan training and access to Narcan kits via group trainings and street-based outreach.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 97% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
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 the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 83
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 24
  • Sustainability: 46
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 90.1%; rating input score 90
  • Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 0%; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 4 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 57
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 9.9%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.13; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -5.1% per year; rating input score 0; 16th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 24% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 14.4% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 90.1% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 0 of 5 board members independent · 4 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $319K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
  • Consistency: 40 of 40 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2020 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • 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 — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 0/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 6 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 8/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 56/100.