Needle Exchange Emergencydistribution
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 260529276
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2017–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2016
- Location
- Berkeley, CA, USA
- Phone
- 5104631843
- Rating
- 75
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Public Health Program (Includes General Health and Wellness Promotion Services)
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $496,946
- Expenses
- $357,858
- Assets
- $164,078
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
12 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Reid Meador (President)
Highest reported compensation
- Bolton Littlefield (Director): $49,844 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
NEED reduces the spread of Hepatitis C, HIV, and other blood-borne pathogens due to injection drug use by providing free, clean syringes and injection supplies, as well as education and training on issues relevant to injection drug users, such as overdose prevention.
What it reported doing in 2024
NEED distributed over 1 million syringes to approximately 20,000 primary and secondary exchangers in and around Berkeley, California and distributed non-injection related harm reduction supplies.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 90% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- 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 - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 73
- Transparency & Controls: 85
- Accountability: 64
- Sustainability: 57
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 72%; rating input score 72
- Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 13th 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: 1 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 14
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 28%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.46; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 13.9%; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 8.9% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 17.6% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 23.9% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 72% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 12 of 12 board members independent · 1 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $358K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $50K · 12 people listed
- Consistency: 37 of 38 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2017 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- High — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 6 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 23/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 25/100.
- Review — Grant Readiness: California registration: this organization could not be resolved against the register, so the check is unfinished.