Justice Forward Virginia

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
851651223
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2022–2025
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2025
Location
Arlington, VA, USA
Rating
88
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Alliance/Advocacy

Reported finances

Revenue
$191,981
Expenses
$172,886
Assets
$118,426
Liabilities
$20,240

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

Leadership & pay

10 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Robert Poggenklass (Executive Director)

People named in this filing

  • Duane Barron (Secretary)
  • Ashley Shapiro (Vice Chair)
  • Bryan Kennedy (Chair)

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

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

Overview

Mission

The mission of Justice Forward Virginia which incorporated in 2020 is to bring attention to the urgent need for criminal legal system reform in Virginia to research and develop model criminal legal system reform policy and to advocate for reforms that will protect civil and human rights of disadvantaged persons in the criminal legal system thereby promoting safer and more equitable communities.

What it reported doing in 2025

In 2025 Justice Forward Virginia worked on a variety of issues both alone and in coalition with other groups to achieve two goals. First was to protect the progress that was made in reforming the criminal legal system in Virginia in prior years and second was to advance new reforms to help further that progress. The organization sought to educate the public and legislators about how the changes made to the criminal system in prior sessions were playing out in practice and most importantly to show them through the use of data that these reforms had no negative impact on public safety. In terms of new reforms Justice Forward worked with other groups to promote change to the law including increasing court appointed attorney pay fixing the first offender drug possession statute putting guardrails on mass surveillance technology and changing the failure to appear statute.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 66% for direct work, and 34% for grants.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 81
  • Transparency & Controls: 100
  • Sustainability: 43
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 78.3%; rating input score 78
  • Program expense ratio: 87%; rating input score 87

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 9.9%; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.68; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.17; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 35.2%; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 43.2% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 35.1% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 27.1% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 78.3% of revenue deployed · 87% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 2 filed program accomplishments · $150K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 10 people listed
  • Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 2 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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.

  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 55/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 47/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 10/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 17/100.