Law Library Microform Consortium

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
990169126
IRS 990 coverage
2011–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Minneapolis, MN, USA
Phone
6124459136
Rating
73
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,756,701
Expenses
$1,438,408
Assets
$11,787,275
Liabilities
$880,590

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

Leadership & pay

10 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • PATRICK BUTLER (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • PATRICK BUTLER (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $198,321 total reported compensation
  • JOSEPH HINGER (DIR OF COLLECTION MANAGEMENT AND MEMBER RELATIONS): $139,445 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Llmc's mission is to preserve and expand access to legal, governmental, and historical materials through collaborative digitization, preservation, and long-term stewardship. In partnership with libraries and other institutions, llmc builds and maintains digital collections that support legal research, education, and historical scholarship by providing reliable access to important legal and historical resources from the united states and around the world.

What it reported doing in 2025

The law library microform consortium (llmc) is a nonprofit cooperative dedicated to preserving and expanding access to legal, governmental, and historical materials from the united states and around the world. Working in partnership with libraries and other institutions, llmc digitizes rare, historically significant, and at-risk collections and makes them accessible through its online research platform.llmc's work helps ensure the long-term preservation of legal and governmental information that might otherwise be lost due to deterioration, limited physical access, collection deaccessioning, or budget and space constraints facing libraries. After digitization, materials are professionally cataloged and preserved to support both ongoing access and long-term archival stewardship.llmc's digital collection contains more than 41,000 titles and over 100 million images used by scholars, attorneys, students, librarians, courts, and researchers worldwide. The collection includes historical legal treatises, government documents, state materials, international and foreign law resources, indigenous materials, and other unique legal and historical content that is often difficult to locate elsewhere.in furtherance of its educational and public-service mission, llmc also provides free public access to selected collections and open-access materials. Through cooperative preservation, shared stewardship, and sustainable digital access, llmc supports legal research, historical scholarship, and the preservation of the legal record for future generations.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 98% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
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. Revenue has declined or grown slowly and reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 63
  • Transparency & Controls: 77
  • Accountability: 94
  • Sustainability: 65
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 65%; rating input score 65
  • Program expense ratio: 80.9%; rating input score 81
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • 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: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 88.9%; rating input score 89; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 8 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: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 18.1%; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 8.19; rating input score 90; 90th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.07; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 23.5%; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 0.7% per year; rating input score 100; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -0.1% per year; rating input score 0; 11th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 2% per year; rating input score 100; 23rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 65% of revenue deployed · 80.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 9 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.2M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $198K · 10 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 31 of 31 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes executive pay
  • Filing history: 15 filing years from 2011 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 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 — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 12/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 38/100.