Neutral Zone

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
383407568
IRS 990 coverage
2012–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Phone
7342149995
Rating
82
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Youth Centers, Clubs

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,154,188
Expenses
$1,713,310
Assets
$5,964,273
Liabilities
$62,706

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

16 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Lori Roddy (Executive Director)
  • Chava Baum-Ferrise (Co-President)
  • Joy Gaines (Co-President)
  • Ron Dickerson Jr (Vice President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Lori Roddy (Executive Director): $103,799 total reported compensation
  • John Weiss (Director of Strategic Initiatives): $103,137 total reported compensation
  • Legen Stephens (Director): $1,470 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Neutral Zone is a transformative, youth-driven community where youth embrace their power, ignite their creativity, and launch their future to build equity, justice, and collective liberation.

What it reported doing in 2024

Neutral Zones youth-driven model relies on three core approaches to providing high quality opportunities. These approaches include a youth and adult partnerships - nurturing partnership of young people with adults to govern the center, programming and community opportunities, b restorative practice - building daily and intentional practice to cultivate a community and repair harm when it occurs, and c equity - ensure our youth are able to successfully transition to adulthood through strategic partnerships, supportive resources and ongoing coaching. Arts and Leadership Neutral Zone hosts a drop in after school space for youth to build meaningful connections with peers and adult mentors each day after school. We offer free artistic and leadership programming in music performance, media and digital technology, visual arts, and activism. See Schedule O for more.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 79% 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 66
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 72
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 64%; rating input score 64
  • Program expense ratio: 79%; rating input score 79
  • Fundraising efficiency: $10.42 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 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: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Fail
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 20.5%; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.48; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 85; 85th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 12.2%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 7.4% per year; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 7.6% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 5.9% per year; rating input score 100; 39th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 64% of revenue deployed · 79% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 13 of 13 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.4M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $104K · 16 people listed
  • Consistency: 31 of 31 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 12 filing years from 2012 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
  • 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.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 39/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Audit committee oversight not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 24/100.