Mercatus Center
Legal name: Mercatus Center Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 541436224
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Arlington, VA, USA
- Phone
- (800) 815-5711
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Economics
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $48,287,301
- Expenses
- $40,947,240
- Assets
- $43,506,821
- Liabilities
- $3,667,797
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
22 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Benjamin Klutsey (Executive Director (from 6/24))
- Daniel M Rothschild (Executive Vice President (6/24-10/24))
- Daniel Butler (Vice President of Development)
- Eileen Norcross (Vice President of Research)
Highest reported compensation
- Benjamin Klutsey (Executive Director (from 6/24)): $381,957 total reported compensation
- Daniel Butler (Vice President of Development): $369,094 total reported compensation
- Veronique De Rugy (George Gibbs Chair Project Sr Research Fellow): $339,754 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 Mercatus Center at George Mason University bridges the gap between theory and practice by supporting top classical liberal scholars in solving real-world challenges, grounded in market-oriented thinking and classical liberal ideas.
What it reported doing in 2024
University Research & Teaching - Supports academic research and faculty activities at George Mason University and elsewhere to advance and apply a research agenda for understanding institutions and change or broadly advance a free and prosperous society.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 97% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 71% for direct work, and 29% for grants.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 80
- Transparency & Controls: 73
- Accountability: 82
- Sustainability: 60
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 77.2%; rating input score 77
- Program expense ratio: 90.3%; rating input score 90
- Fundraising efficiency: $24.02 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 94.1%; rating input score 94; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: 1 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 12
- Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
- Requires narrative reports: Fail
- Conducts field audits: Fail
- May suspend future funding: Fail
- Requires financial reports: Fail
- Conducts site visits: Fail
- Requires grant agreements: Fail
- May require repayment: Fail
- Grant itemization coverage: 99.6%; rating input score 100; 35th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 76.9%; rating input score 77; 14th 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: 15.2%; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.06; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.08; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 7.8%; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 8.5% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 8.4% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 10.4% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 7 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 2 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 77.2% of revenue deployed · 90.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 10 of 13 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 5 filed program accomplishments · $37M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $382K · 22 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $1.1M reported
- Consistency: 41 of 42 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 10 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2011 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 62 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 50 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight: 7 of 8 not reported.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Form 990 shared with the board not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 38/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 31/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.