Line 4 Line

What it reported doing in 2024

Book access - a little free library sits outside the barber shop and is regularly stocked with new and used books. To date more than 4,000 books have found new homes across baton rouge. Line4line works with community groups to rehome donated books throughout city, in free little libraries, public housing sites, doctors offices and classrooms. Community lending library - line4lines library of 800+ books, for all reading levels and interests is available to community members to borrow. The collection focuses on diversity, specifically black, indigenous, people of color. An catalog of the collection is accessible on line4lines website and linked to black owned bookstores. Line4line is working with front yard bike to build a mobile bike-mobile, to expand access of books into areas of high need. Backspace - in 2019 line4line renovated a multi-purpose program space within the barbershop complex, home to our lending library and all of our community based programs, including saturday open-house, summer camps, mentoring program, workshops, trainings, community partner collaborations, and more. Life/workforce development - in 2020 line4line expanded its outreach into capitol high school transforming a classroom into a barbering and reading lab. In addition to students learning the art and business of barbering, the program offers one-on-one reading support, and a library of culturally relevant books. Students participating in this program can apply to become apprentices at oneils barbershop and line4line, providing youth with a paid career-building experience. In 2021 line4line began a mentoring program grounded in the practice of reciprocity where young people can be heard and supported. This small format program pairs our barbers with middle/high school/ alternative students for activities and outings providing opportunities to build a support network.in 2021 line4line began work to develop a mobile outreach program to provides free haircuts for reading, books, hands on creative activities as well as academic and social/emotional support. This program will operate as a free pop-up camp during the summer and will participate in community events throughout the year. Educational outreach - in addition to providing free haircuts for reading in the east baton rouge parish public and charter schools, line4line attends school events and in 2021 brought 2800 diversity focused books into 54 local elementary schools. This project was made possible by the conscious kid organization to promote conversations around race, racism and resistance and to create greater access to bipoc books within baton rouge. Partners for this project included the east baton rouge parish school system; east baton rouge parish public library and knock knock childrens museum. Details on this project can be found at https://line4linebr.org/book-program/. Partnership - in 2020 line4line joined forces with humanities amped, big buddy and front yard bikes as the angel coalition to establish the youth city lab, with the goal of creating a full service youth program facility in mid-city providing young people with access to a variety of out-of- school programs under one roof. The group is currently raising funds to renovate a historic church on government street with the plans of opening for programming in summer 2021.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 58.5%; rating input score 59
• Program expense ratio: 72.2%; rating input score 72
• Fundraising efficiency: $54.7 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: Limited
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 87.5%; rating input score 88; 24th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Fail
  • Document-retention policy: Fail
  • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Missing
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 19%; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.55; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 15.3%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 19.7% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 23.4% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 16.8% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings