Liga De Ciudades De Puerto Rico

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
660943479
IRS 990 coverage
2023–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2022
Location
San Juan, PR, USA
Phone
7874086394
Rating
86
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Alliance/Advocacy

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,591,823
Expenses
$1,703,867
Assets
$244,147
Liabilities
$56,357

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

6 people listed

People named in this filing

  • JUAN GARCIA PADILLA (DIRECTOR)
  • BERNALDO J MARQUEZ GARCIA (DIRECTOR)
  • JOSEAN SANTIAGO (DIRECTOR)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

To empower the island's local governments in a nonpartisan effort to improve the quality of life of the Puerto Rican people

What it reported doing in 2024

During the year, the organization focused on expanding municipal innovation and leadership development, as well as strengthening its operational infrastructure. We implemented the Municipal Innovation Lab, our flagship initiative to engage elected officials and promote good governance through innovation and participatory processes. Major accomplishments included: Conducted governance assessments in five pilot municipalities using La Liga's Ten Standards of Good Governance and improved evaluation tools based on feedback from local officials. Redesigned and implemented the Municipal Innovation Plan. This included two components: a case study to showcase municipal innovation and an action plan to systematically mobilize innovation at the local level. Continued development of La Constructora to adapt to evolving political and fiscal contexts. As part of this initiative, we submitted two Community Change grant proposals totaling approximately 21 million dollars to support participatory innovation in 15 municipalities. Maintained and updated the Federal Funding Navigation Tool with current opportunities, and began evaluating its design to better align with federal funding strategies for Puerto Rico. Integrated a Municipal Transparency Diagnostic, developed in partnership with Sembrando Sentido, into the Lab's structure to help municipalities advance along the transparency continuum. Continued our capacity-building efforts through the ICAMU training series, aimed at municipal leaders, communities, and organizations on topics related to municipal innovation. Continued producing our radio program "Agenda Municipal and began redesigning it as a podcast with a more strategic communication approach to promote municipalism in Puerto Rico. Operational strengthening was also a key focus. Investments in personnel, office infrastructure, and cross-departmental coordination were essential to maintaining operational capacity. Partnerships with organizations such as the Center for Habitat Reconstruction and Sembrando Sentido enhanced our ability to share knowledge and resources. This funding enabled us to deepen our commitment to systems transformation through municipalism, strengthen our role as a strategic partner to local governments, and scale democratic governance and community resilience innovations.

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 87% 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.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 95
  • Transparency & Controls: 89
  • Accountability: 82
  • Sustainability: 25
  • Growth: 80

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 97.9%; rating input score 98
  • Program expense ratio: 91.5%; rating input score 92
  • Fundraising efficiency: $95.87 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 97.9%; rating input score 98; 46th 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: 4 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 57
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • 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: -7%; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.14; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.23; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 25.2% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 32.3% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -7.8% per year; rating input score 0; 4th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 97.9% of revenue deployed · 91.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 4 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.6M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 6 people listed
  • Consistency: 27 of 28 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 2 filing years from 2023 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 2 filed related-organization links
  • 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.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 21/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 7/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 29/100.