Negotiation Works
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 832595231
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2021–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2020
- Location
- Washington, DC, USA
- Phone
- 2022462212
- Rating
- 83
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Human Service Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $198,461
- Expenses
- $230,070
- Assets
- $68,742
- Liabilities
- $712
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
7 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- MELISSA REINBERG (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND SECRETARY)
- STUART ISHIMARU (PRESIDENT)
People named in this filing
- MELISSA REINBERG (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND SECRETARY)
- STUART ISHIMARU (PRESIDENT)
- ROBERT DUNCAN (TREASURER)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Through innovative negotiation and self-advocacy training, negotiation works empowers people in the dmv area who are emerging from difficult and often traumatic situations - such as incarceration, homelessness, addiction, and domestic violence - to better navigate their everyday challenges involving employment, housing, health care, and family relationships and to live the next chapters of their lives confidently and productively.
What it reported doing in 2025
Negotiation courses: our signature program, a multi-week negotiation course, trains historically-marginalized individuals in foundational negotiation and self-advocacy strategies including identifying personal priorities, considering various perspectives and solutions, and taking initiative to achieve one's goals. We provide these negotiation skills classes to the clients of our community-based partner organizations, which include residential programs for people experiencing homelessness, educational and workforce development programs specifically targeted for women or individuals returning to the community post-incarceration, and correctional institutions. In 2025, we provided programs for 258 individuals through 17 multi-session programs in partnership with five community-based organizations and the dc jail. Additionally, we secured three new partnerships in 2025 and provided them with single-session workshops that we created this year, serving an additional 80 community members.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 80% 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
STRONG - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 75
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 24
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 79.4%; rating input score 79
- Program expense ratio: 68.5%; rating input score 69
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -15.9%; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.3; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 39.5% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 22.1% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -4.8% per year; rating input score 0; 16th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 79.4% of revenue deployed · 68.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $158K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 7 people listed
- Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2021 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- 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.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 9/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 26/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 37/100.