Legal Council for Health Justice
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 363563802
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2015–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Chicago, IL, USA
- Phone
- 3124278990
- Rating
- 77
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $4,168,026
- Expenses
- $3,646,350
- Assets
- $4,678,922
- Liabilities
- $667,830
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
24 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Mike Casner (President)
- Jonathan Motto (Vice President)
- Julie Justicz (Executive Director)
Highest reported compensation
- Julie Justicz (Executive Director): $175,433 total reported compensation
- Caroline Chapman (Deputy Director of Program & Policy): $136,371 total reported compensation
- Ruth Edwards (Deputy Director of Finance & Operations): $136,031 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Legal Council for Health Justice uses the power of law to secure dignity, opportunity, and well-being for people living with illness or disability. All programs combine direct service, public policy, and education/outreach.
What it reported doing in 2024
Homeless Program: This program focused its legal advocacy on people who have serious mental or other health issues and are homeless. Working with social services agencies across Chicago including the AFC Center for Housing & Health, All Chicago SOAR Program, Franciscan Outreach, Matthew House, Safer Foundation, and Urban Breakthrough Ministries, program staff have worked with clients to help them gain access to disability income, health care, substance abuse treatment, and other benefits that empower clients to stabilize their lives and sustain housing.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 99% 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. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 70
- Transparency & Controls: 71
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 53
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 70.2%; rating input score 70
- Program expense ratio: 79.4%; rating input score 79
- Fundraising efficiency: $10.7 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Missing
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd 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; 63rd 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: 12.5%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.28; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.14; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 19.1%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 5.4% per year; rating input score 100; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 7.9% per year; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 9.8% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 70.2% of revenue deployed · 79.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 19 of 19 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $2.9M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $175K · 24 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 37 of 37 current checks pass
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 9 filing years from 2015 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 6 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
- 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 — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 40/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 46/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 13/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 52/100.