Neighborhood Justice Center Inc

What it reported doing in 2024

Legal representation & advice: "the neighborhood justice center's primary program is our legal representation and advice program where we provide comprehensive criminal defense services to disadvantaged and underserved persons who face criminal charges and need extended legal representation, brief legal service and/or advice only to obtain the best possible outcome in their case. As an organization created by and for communities of color, njc seeks to represent clients from throughout our diverse community, specifically seeking to assist those groups who have been traditionally disenfranchised and targeted for unfair treatment. Njc staff look beyond the immediate legal problems to serve the whole person, helping to connect such services as housing assistance, chemical dependency and/ or mental health treatment. Many of our clients also face immigration consequences and we partner with experts in immigration law to protect and inform our clients about their rights and risks. Njc strives to prove staff that reflect the community we serve by hiring bilingual, culturally and racially diverse attorneys, community advocates and law clerks. This program also includes legal defense service njc provides through the ramsey county treatment courts, and our legal advice services. In the last fiscal year njc statistics demonstrate that over 76% of njc clients were people of color, with our client-identified statistical breakdown being 33% african american/ black, 24% caucasian, 7% hispanic, 12% american indian, 4% east asian, and 20% self-identified as other/ mixed race. We believe these numbers demonstrate that njc is still reaching the many communities of color in our state and ensuring that all people have access to quality legal representation no matter their ability to pay. Our legal representation and advice program during the 2024-25 fiscal year served approximately 1925 community members. This includes over 400 formal criminal cases where talented njc attorneys provided full-service legal representation and litigation for any legal issue arising in cases ranging from low level misdemeanors to the highest level felonies. As an organization that is dedicated to serving those with the greatest need, we also served an additional approximately 275 individuals through our defense role in the ramsey county treatment courts, where we represent every participant in the treatment courts for the duration of their time in this intensive, treatment-focused program. This is a very successful program that has kept hundreds of community members from going to jail/ prison, and instead invested in their treatment and mental health needs, resulting in sober, healthy clients regaining their ability to be productive community and family members. Knowing that the community has few resources available to simply ask legal questions, njc provides our free legal advice service, which helped over 1250 people last year. This service allows individuals to contact njc attorneys directly to discuss confidential legal questions, free of charge, with the goal of guiding community members to the best outcome and to avoid further problems. This includes over 350 advice sessions that lasted over a half-hour and may have required outside contacts or other actions by the attorney to gather the information needed to comprehensively serve this community member. We believe these advice services promote just outcomes by giving people in need honest legal advice without the requirement of payment. "

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 76.9%; rating input score 77
• Program expense ratio: 90.2%; rating input score 90
• Fundraising efficiency: $152.17 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 90; 90th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
  • Compensation committee: Missing
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
  • Written employment contract: Missing
  • Compensation survey or study: Missing
  • Board or committee approval: Missing
• 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: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • 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: 14.8%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.79; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.09; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 18%; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 7.9% per year; rating input score 100; 55th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 6.2% per year; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 8.8% per year; rating input score 100; 54th percentile among comparable filings