Maine Equal Justice Partners
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 043346273
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Augusta, ME, USA
- Phone
- 2076267058
- Rating
- 89
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Legal Services
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $2,772,726
- Expenses
- $3,873,554
- Assets
- $3,690,161
- Liabilities
- $84,542
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
18 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Tina Nadeau (President)
- Susan Kiralis (Vice President)
- Robyn Merrill (Executive Director)
Highest reported compensation
- Robyn Merrill (Executive Director): $125,848 total reported compensation
- Matthew Scease (Development and Finance Di): $112,865 total reported compensation
- Frank D'Alessandro (Legal Director): $108,130 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Maine Equal Justice is a nonprofit legal aid and economic justice organization working to increase economic security, opportunity and equity for people in Maine.
What it reported doing in 2024
Litigation & Other Advocacy: MEJ represents clients (individuals below 200% of the federal poverty level) before administrative agencies, the state legislature and state & federal courts primarily to ensure that they can meet basic needs, including food, housing, utilities, health care, and to protect and advance their rights as consumers. MEJ handled 912 individual cases in 2024, as well as 29 systemic cases and rulemakings affecting programs that serve over 345,000 people, and our 18 trainings reached 580 people. Individual and systemic cases focused on health care (primarily Medicaid related), food assistance and income supports, employment issues, housing and utility matters, consumer protections, and education or family issues.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 96% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 72% for direct work, and 28% for grants.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 90
- Transparency & Controls: 94
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 25
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 86.6%; rating input score 87
- Fundraising efficiency: $14.67 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 99.6%; rating input score 100; 40th 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: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -39.7%; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.95; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 9.3%; rating input score 32; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 15.3% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 11.1% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 16.3% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 86.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 14 of 14 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $3.4M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $126K · 18 people listed
- Consistency: 35 of 35 current checks pass
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2011 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 7 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 4 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 — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 3/100.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 50/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 35/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Form 990 shared with the board not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 32/100.