Life Is Work
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 823436927
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2021–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2020, Form 990-N 2019
- Location
- Maywood, IL, USA
- Phone
- 8478403192
- Rating
- 64
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Minority Rights
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,286,574
- Expenses
- $1,197,893
- Assets
- $259,101
- Liabilities
- $170,420
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
1 person listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Zahara Bassett (Chief Executive Officer)
Highest reported compensation
- Zahara Bassett (Chief Executive Officer): $120,615 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
As the first Black and Brown Trans-led social services and advocacy organization in the Midwest Life Is Work has a mission to support and uplift trans people of color through direct services activism and advocacy to accomplish this employment legal services and safe residential options.
What it reported doing in 2025
Life Is Work provides case management-guided program assistance with employment legal services and safe residential options.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of total spending goes to programs and most voting board members are independent. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and a relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 62
- Transparency & Controls: 49
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 32
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 59.3%; rating input score 59
- Program expense ratio: 63.7%; rating input score 64
- Fundraising efficiency: $33.79 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 81.8%; rating input score 82; 1st 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: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- 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: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 6.9%; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.22; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.66; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 10.1%; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 27.4% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 38.8% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 30.8% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 59.3% of revenue deployed · 63.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $763K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $121K · 1 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 38 of 42 current checks pass · 4 findings to review
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes executive pay
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2021 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.
- 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 — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 59/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 11/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 49/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 9/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Functional expense sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part IX Advertising column sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part IX FeesForServicesProfFundraising column sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Schedule G fundraiser detail did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 37/100.