Lede New Orleans
Legal name: Lede New Orleans Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 851432323
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2022–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2021, Form 990-T 2025
- Location
- New Orleans, LA, USA
- Phone
- 5044052637
- Rating
- 67
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Educational Services and Schools - Other
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $263,073
- Expenses
- $359,953
- Assets
- $378,835
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JENNIFER LARINO (President & CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- JENNIFER LARINO (President & CEO): $65,763 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Lede New Orleans is a community media hub transforming how journalism serves the people of our city. We do that by training emerging Black and Brown storytellers, amplifying stories that respond to local needs, and fostering trusted spaces for civic discussion.
What it reported doing in 2025
In 2025, Lede New Orleans focused the majority of itsCommunity Reporting Fellowship efforts on a comprehensive program redesign to better meetthe needs of emerging storytellers and the communities they serve.? Lede extended the fellowship duration from 16 weeks to up to 24 weeks to allow fordeeper skill-building, reporting, and editorial support.? The organization enhanced training and coaching infrastructure and leveraged grantfunding to engage experienced media professionals to lead key aspects of the program, including editorial workflow oversight by a Senior Editor.? These changes were designed to strengthen reporting quality, reduce time pressure onfellows, and align program pacing more closely with community-centered journalismpractices.Following this redesign, the Community Reporting Fellowship relaunched in September 2025with a cohort of five fellows.? Fellows are currently receiving training and producing original reporting focused on localhousing issues in New Orleans.? Training will conclude in March 2026, with stories scheduled for publication in spring2026.While the fellowship was undergoing redesign, Lede marked its programmatic legacy bypartnering with The Front Gallery to present Five Years Forward, a live public exhibithighlighting five years of Community Reporting Fellowship work.? The exhibit featured journalism produced by past fellows on topics including mentalhealth, food access, and Black maternal health.? This project celebrated the growth of emerging storytellers and highlighted the long-termimpact of community-based reporting in New Orleans.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% 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 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: 90
- Accountability: 0
- Sustainability: 27
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 80.5%; rating input score 81
- 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: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 0%; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 0 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Fail
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -36.8%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.05; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 18.3%; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 17.8% per year; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 18.8% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 28.6% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 3 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 80.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 0 of 8 board members independent · 0 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 5 filed program accomplishments · $290K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $66K · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 21 of 21 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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.
- High — Accountability: Governance controls: 7 of 7 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 6/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 42/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 20/100.