Muckrock Foundation Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
811485228
IRS 990 coverage
2017–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Boston, MA, USA
Phone
6506563417
Rating
74
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Civil Liberties

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$6,347,222
Expenses
$4,874,595
Assets
$5,572,137
Liabilities
$167,709

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

12 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • SCOTT KLEIN (PRESIDENT)
  • MAGO TORRES (VICE PRESIDENT)
  • MICHAEL MORISY (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER)

Highest reported compensation

  • MICHAEL MORISY (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER): $138,911 total reported compensation
  • MITCHELL KOTLER (CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER): $131,851 total reported compensation
  • AMANDA HICKMAN (CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER): $130,698 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Muckrock is a non-profit, collaborative news site that brings together journalists, researchers, activists, and regular citizens to request, analyze, and share government documents, making politics more transparent

What it reported doing in 2025

In 2024, mlk50 justice through journalism continued its impactful work in memphis, focusing on issues of poverty, power, and public policy. Among its key accomplishments, the newsroom held powerful entities accountable by highlighting unsafe working conditions at fedex and exposing environmental racism impacting south memphis residents. Additionally, mlk50 shed light on housing injustices, covering how landlords and developers were displacing residents for profit. The organization also captured the communities resilience, documenting joyful events such as juneteenth celebretion and protest against the expulsion of local representatives. Futhurmore, mlk50 expanded its reporting capacity by raising funds to hire new reporters focused on government accountability and public safety

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 90% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 94% 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 - 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: 69
  • Transparency & Controls: 72
  • Accountability: 86
  • Sustainability: 55
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 69.5%; rating input score 70
  • Program expense ratio: 89.7%; rating input score 90
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 14th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: 0 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Claims monitoring procedures: Fail
    • 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 75th 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 9 controls in place; rating input score 67
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Fail
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 23.2%; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.14; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: Limited

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 25.8% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 26.5% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 33.3% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 69.5% of revenue deployed · 89.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 6 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $4.4M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $139K · 12 people listed
  • Consistency: 29 of 30 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, and grants
  • Filing history: 9 filing years from 2017 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 8 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 7 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: 8 of 8 not reported.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 9 not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 38/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.