Lincoln Law School of San Jose
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 770342669
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- San Jose, CA, USA
- Phone
- 4089777227
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Standard
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $728,817
- Expenses
- $966,310
- Assets
- $247,115
- Liabilities
- $211,986
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
7 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- JAIME J AMEZCUA (DEAN): $100,692 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The goal of lincoln law school of san jose is to provide a superior legal education to its students culminating in the conferral of the juris doctor degree and certification to sit for the California bar examination. (continued on schedule o)lincoln law school of san jose seeks a diverse student body and to provide opportunity to those who are academically qualified for the study and practice of law.
What it reported doing in 2024
The school provides legal educations to students.27 students registered and enrolled throughout the fall 2024, 26 in spring 2025, and 14 in summer 2025 academic year.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 81% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- 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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 82
- Transparency & Controls: 96
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 11
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 79.3%; rating input score 79
- Fundraising efficiency: $1.56 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 76th 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: 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: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -32.6%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.26; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.86; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 10.4%; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 2.3% per year; rating input score 100; 28th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 0% per year; rating input score 100; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -3.2% per year; rating input score 0; 9th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 79.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $766K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $101K · 7 people listed
- Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $142K reported
- Consistency: 29 of 30 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- Related organizations: 3 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.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 4/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 5/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 12/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Schedule R controlled transactions itemized did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 8/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 35/100.