Louisville Bar Foundation Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 311040473
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Louisville, KY, USA
- Phone
- 5025835314
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Fund Raising and Fund Distribution
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $268,854
- Expenses
- $245,969
- Assets
- $4,275,278
- Liabilities
- $-22,890
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
26 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Jeffrey A Been (Executive Director)
- Gretchen C Avery (Past President)
- Charles H Stopher (President)
- Sara V Judd (President Elect)
- Gregory T Dutton (Vice President & Treasurer)
Highest reported compensation
- Jeffrey A Been (Executive Director): $30,000 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To raise and distribute funds in the form of grants to not for profit organizations in the Louisville area that provide legal services to the poor and disadvantaged, conduct programs to educate citizens about the law, and support improvements and access to the justice system.
What it reported doing in 2024
Alberta Odell Jones was born in Louisville in 1930. She graduated from Louisville Central High School and then attended Louisville Metropolitan College, graduating third in her class. She attended the University of Louisville Law School for one year before transferring to Howard University for her degree, graduating fourth in her law school class. In 1959, upon admission to the Kentucky bar the same year she received her law degree, Jones become Kentucky's first practicing African American woman attorney. She later became the first woman appointed as a city attorney in Jefferson County. Jones was active with the Louisville Urban League, the NAACP, and she founded the Independent Voters Association of Louisville where she initiated programs to educate African Americans on how to use voting machines. Jones was killed in 1965 and her murder remains unsolved. The Eta Zeta chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, of which Jones was a member when she was a practicing attorney, is honoring Jones and her life achievements by commissioning a statue of Jones to be prominently displayed in her hometown of Louisville. The LBF grant will help fund the creation of the statue and the development of educational programming about Jones contributions to the profession of law.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Grant intermediary. The nonprofit sent 100% of its reported program spending out as grants.
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: 84
- Transparency & Controls: 84
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 54
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 95.5%; rating input score 96
- Program expense ratio: 81.9%; rating input score 82
- Fundraising efficiency: $7.2 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 79.2%; rating input score 79; 48th 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: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 8.5%; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 17.38; rating input score 94; 94th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: Limited
Growth
- Program expense growth: 4.8% per year; rating input score 100; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 6.2% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 5.5% per year; rating input score 100; 49th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 95.5% of revenue deployed · 81.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 25 of 25 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 21 filed program accomplishments · $202K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $30K · 26 people listed
- Consistency: 18 of 19 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 11 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 11 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 13 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.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 31/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 57/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.