Legal Aid for New Entrepreneurs Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 334235336
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2025–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025
- Location
- Chicago, IL, USA
- Phone
- 8722561797
- Rating
- 72
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Legal Services
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $152,475
- Expenses
- $104,058
- Assets
- $48,570
- Liabilities
- $153
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
9 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- SARA GHADIRI (BOARD PRESIDENT)
- KRISTEN SONDAY (VICE PRESIDENT)
- MELISSA PICCIOLA (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
People named in this filing
- LAUREN WORSEK (BOARD MEMBER AT LARGE)
- ALYSE SAGALCHIK (BOARD MEMBER AT LARGE)
- MIKE M BOSONE (BOARD MEMBER AT LARGE)
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
Lane's mission is to empower low income small business owners by providing access to essential legal services. Our goal is to help these entrepreneurs establish and grow their businesses with confidence, ensuring they have the legal foundation they need to succeed.
What it reported doing in 2025
Free legal representation and individual legal services: lane's primary program is providing free, individualized legal services to low income entrepreneurs and small business owners who otherwise lack access to legal counsel. Lane conducts intake and eligibility screening, identifies clients' legal needs, and coordinates the delivery of legal advice, brief services, and ongoing representation.lane's legal services focus on matters essential to starting, operating, and growing a small business, including business formation, contracts, employment compliance, commercial leasing, intellectual property, and other small business related legal issues. Legal services are delivered by experienced pro bono attorneys from law firms and corporate legal departments participating in lane's volunteer attorney network, with program oversight and coordination provided by lane.during the reporting year, lane provided free legal services to approximately 40 entrepreneurs and small business owners, supporting business formation, stability, and growth. Through this representation, clients were better able to operate legally compliant businesses, avoid costly disputes, and access economic opportunity.
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 - The filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 58
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 55
- Growth: NotEnoughData
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 49.4%; rating input score 49
- Program expense ratio: 72.3%; rating input score 72
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: 31.8%; rating input score 83; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.47; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 72.9%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: Limited
- Asset growth: Limited
Details
- Where the money goes: 49.4% of revenue deployed · 72.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $75K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 9 people listed
- Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- 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.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 49/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 36/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 1/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 43/100.