Center for Justice Innovation
Legal name: Justice Innovation Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 852810883
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2021–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Aug 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2020
- Location
- New York, NY, USA
- Phone
- 6463863100
- Rating
- 85
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Administration of Justice, Courts
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $127,610,940
- Expenses
- $126,602,789
- Assets
- $79,961,305
- Liabilities
- $27,921,753
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
30 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- COURTNEY BRYAN (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER)
Highest reported compensation
- COURTNEY BRYAN (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER): $448,668 total reported compensation
- THERON PRIDE (MD, NATIONAL INITIATIVES & RESEARCH): $328,573 total reported compensation
- JETHRO ANTOINE (CHIEF PROG. OFFICER, COURT REFORM): $296,928 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The Center for Justice Innovation works to create a more effective, humane, and just justice system by developing and implementing community-based alternatives to incarceration, advancing research and policy reform, and promoting racial equity.
What it reported doing in 2024
National initiatives: the center is a national leader in developing, studying, and disseminating a wide variety of innovative justice models. Through the center's community justice solutions team, staff conduct mixed-method, multi-site evaluations of community, court, public health, justice, and education programs, as well as research to promote new thinking about how different systems (e.g., education, public health, criminal justice) can address problems of violence, crime, and safety. The team's training and technical assistance side provides hands-on, expert assistance to reformers around the world, including through facilitating site visits at model programs; providing training on a range of topics, from community justice to domestic violence; maintaining an array of online learning resources; and offering intensive planning and implementation support to jurisdictions seeking to launch new models. Research informs programming, programming informs research, and both research and practice inform our efforts to train and assist communities across the u.s. And internationally in adopting tailored reforms.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 93% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 95% 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
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: 85
- Transparency & Controls: 83
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 34
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 83.6%; rating input score 84
- Program expense ratio: 84.2%; rating input score 84
- Fundraising efficiency: $775.56 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 95; 95th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Pass
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 99.8%; rating input score 100; 44th 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; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 0.8%; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.63; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.35; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 3%; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 39.1% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 29.4% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 23.7% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 7 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 2 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 83.6% of revenue deployed · 84.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 12 of 12 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 5 filed program accomplishments · $106.6M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $449K · 30 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $885K reported
- Consistency: 37 of 37 current checks pass
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2021 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 101 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 87 filed related-organization links
- 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 — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 36/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 24/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 37/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 50/100.