National Women's Law Center Action Fund
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 460639645
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2019
- Location
- Washington, DC, USA
- Phone
- 2025885180
- Rating
- 87
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Women's Rights
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $2,916,348
- Expenses
- $3,507,504
- Assets
- $1,998,650
- Liabilities
- $487,360
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- FATIMA GOSS GRAVES (PRESIDENT AND CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- FATIMA GOSS GRAVES (PRESIDENT AND CEO): $20,849 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 national women's law center action fund is a social welfare organization whose purpose is to promote the securing of equal rights and opportunities for women. The national women's law center action fund's work promotes policies that improve women's (1) child care and income security opportunities, (2) education, (3) workplace justice, and (4) health and reproductive rights - with special attention given to the needs of low-income women and their families. The national women's law center action fund's activities consist of advocacy, public education, and research.
What it reported doing in 2024
- worked to get as many fair and impartial federal judges nominated and confirmed in the senate before the end of the congress.- launched call and texting campaigns to engage constituents on opposing cabinet nominees because of their harmful stances on gender justice issues. - successfully blocked david weldon's nomination to head the centers for disease control, which brought attention to the danger his nomination posed and laid bare his anti-abortion record.- launched campaign to engage public in asking congress to oppose the reconciliation budget bill, focusing on the ways that tax cuts for billionaires and wealthy corporations rob us of the investments in child care, health care, and support for families that we all deserve.- engaged in advocacy and public education about the harms of trump administration executive orders.- engaged in advocacy across a range of issues, including child care, education, and reproductive rights.- led a coalition focused on gender justice policy and convened advocates to develop legislative priorities and plan for congressional briefing. - created national and state-specific voter guides focused on child care, reproductive rights, safe and inclusive schools, supporting survivors of sexual violence and harassment, and protecting our democracy. Worked with partners on digital, call, and texting programs aimed at educating voters leading up to the 2024 elections.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 94% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 93% 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
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 total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 95
- Transparency & Controls: 89
- Accountability: 83
- Sustainability: 23
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 90.1%; rating input score 90
- Fundraising efficiency: $63.39 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 7th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 97.8%; rating input score 98; 34th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 80%; rating input score 80; 14th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -20.3%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.57; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.24; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0.6%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 24% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 24% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 27.7% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 90.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 4 of 5 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $3.2M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $21K · 5 people listed
- Highest-paid contractors: 3 contractors listed · $1.5M reported
- Consistency: 30 of 31 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 13 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 11 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 7/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 20/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: CEO compensation review process not reported.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 39/100.