Legal Outreach Inc

What it reported doing in 2024

In 2024-25, legal outreach began the school year with 226 students enrolled in its college bound program (70 freshmen, 64 sophomores, 53 juniors, and 39 seniors). Within the college bound program, we continue to implement our school-year academic advisory program, writing program, con law debate program, mentoring program, professional training program, professional exposure program, parent support program, college admissions program, transition-to-college, and civic engagement and social justice program. We finished the 2024-25 school year with 216 students in the program (65 freshmen, 56 sophomores, 52 juniors, and 39 seniors). Our retention rate for the year was thus 96%. We successfully implemented all elements of the multi-faceted program including the: 1) academic support center; 2) study and life skills program; 3) mentoring program; 4) constitutional law debate program; 5) parent support program; 6) saturday writing program; 7) college admissions program, 8) transition to college program, 9) college support program for our college freshmen. Summer college bound programs, all of which were done virtually, included 10) summer internships for rising 10th grade students; 11) sat prep program for rising 11th graders; and 12) college admissions program and college philosophy class for rising 12th graders.we also helped 100% of graduating legal outreach high school students gain admission to a four-year college. We started the 2024-25 academic year with 39 seniors. Thirty-nine (100 %) completed the program and each was admitted to an average of 8 colleges based upon their overall profile.regarding our feeder program, the summer law institute for rising 9th grade students, we enrolled 161 students into the institutes at brooklyn, cardozo (all female identifying), cuny, fordham (all female identifying), nyu (all male identifying), and st. John's law schools. The rising ninth graders at each institute attended the program from 9:00 am - 4:00 pm, monday through friday for five weeks. They were exposed to legal outreach's criminal justice curriculum, lawyers representing various career paths within the legal profession, legal institutions such as law firms and courthouses, and the practice of law through the culminating event of the summer, a mock-trial competition. Each institute was staffed by two law students and a college intern. Of the 161 students who began the institute, 153 (95%) successfully completed the rigorous five-week program. The attendance rate was 99.67%. Of the 153 students who completed the program, 116 (76%) applied for admission to the college bound program for high school students in grades 9-12.within the college bound program, since 2020 we have facilitated a leadership component called the civic engagement and social justice program. In 2024-25, 129 of legal outreach college bound program students participated in the civic engagement and social justice program, with 24 students serving on the civic engagement and social justice leadership council (sophomores, juniors and seniors), and an additional 13 students taking part in the freshman leadership institute, an initiative to train and prepare freshman for participation on the leadership council as they matriculate through high school.at the end of the school year, we engaged philliber research associates to conduct an extensive evaluation of the college bound program. Among the most relevant statistics for measuring the effectiveness of the program were students' perceptions of the programs' usefulness. Students provided the following average ratings with regard to the value of the components of the college bound program: (1) keeping on track to college (92%) (2) preparing to compete at the collegiate level (91%), (3) improving academic skills (85%), (4) doing well in school (83%). Each of these ratings is well above our projection of 70%. According to the report, 96% of the students served came from minority groups and 88% received free or reduced-price

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 86.6%; rating input score 87
• Program expense ratio: 75.5%; rating input score 75
• Fundraising efficiency: $5.46 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 5 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 83
  • Compensation committee: Pass
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
  • Written employment contract: Pass
  • Compensation survey or study: Pass
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• 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: 70%; rating input score 70; 11th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 9 of 9 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: Pass
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: -12.8%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.2; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.27; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 25.9%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 1.1% per year; rating input score 100; 18th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 3.2% per year; rating input score 100; 28th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 6.7% per year; rating input score 100; 44th percentile among comparable filings