Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance
Legal name: Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 273119044
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2014–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2011
- Location
- Boston, MA, United States
- Phone
- 617.553.4115
- Rating
- 72
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Voter Education, Registration
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $279,590
- Expenses
- $255,054
- Assets
- $126,026
- Liabilities
- $27,978
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
12 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- CARL COPELAND (INTERIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- CARL COPELAND (INTERIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $13,388 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance advocates for fiscal responsibility, transparency, and accountability in state government and increased economic opportunity for the people of our Commonwealth.
What it reported doing in 2024
The Massachusetts fiscal alliance executes several facets of its program in pursuit of its mission, through which it seeks to educate, inform, and engage residents of Massachusetts on key issues relating to its goals of increasing fiscal responsibility, transparency, and accountability in state government, and expanding economic opportunity for the people of our commonwealth.Massachusetts fiscal alliance regularly maintains, updates, and provides informative and educational content across its website (massfiscal.org), a large email list with thousands of subscribers, and its social media platforms, including facebook, tiktok, x (twitter), instagram, youtube, and linkedin. Content for these platforms is generally geared toward educating residents about the positions and actions of state legislators and government officials as they relate to our mission of promoting responsibility, transparency, and accountability in state government, and increasing economic opportunity for the people of our commonwealth.the maintenance, moderation, and content generation for these platforms require significant commitments of staff time and effort. This work also includes advertising expenditures aimed at broadening our reach across these platforms to reach more residents of Massachusetts. Over the past year, our digital media efforts have generated hundreds of thousands of unique impressions, helping to educate and engage the public with their state government and increase civic participation.in addition, Massachusetts fiscal alliance maintains a separate website for its legislative scorecard (massfiscalscorecard.org). The scorecard provides rankings of legislators based on their votes on issues pertinent to our mission of advocating for fiscal responsibility, transparency, and accountability in state government, and increasing economic opportunity for the people of Massachusetts. It does so in a neutral, unbiased manner and includes information on how constituents can best contact their state legislators. All supporting information is made available, and links to individual roll call votes are provided in an easy-to-use, accessible format. This scorecard is updated in real time by staff.Massachusetts fiscal alliance also conducts digital and direct mail campaigns designed to increase voter turnout, educate residents on specific issues, and encourage civic engagement. These campaigns address both pending policies at the Massachusetts state house and ballot questions that relate to our mission.
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 100% 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
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and program spending has declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 62
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 40
- Growth: 0
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 61.3%; rating input score 61
- Program expense ratio: 67.2%; rating input score 67
- Fundraising efficiency: $14.9 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 50; 50th 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: 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: 8.8%; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.49; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.22; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 5.2%; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -12.5% per year; rating input score 0; 9th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -12.1% per year; rating input score 0; 5th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -1% per year; rating input score 0; 21st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 6 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 61.3% of revenue deployed · 67.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $172K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $13K · 12 people listed
- Consistency: 26 of 26 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 10 filing years from 2014 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 50/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 24/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 58/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 19/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 33/100.