North Carolina Climate Justice Collective
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 872961785
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2021–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Durham, NC, USA
- Phone
- 2526551401
- Rating
- 55
- Verdict
- MIXED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Alliance/Advocacy Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,062,088
- Expenses
- $1,100,927
- Assets
- $885,332
- Liabilities
- $7,995
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- Jodi Lasseter (Executive Dir.): $98,639 total reported compensation
- Connie Leeper (Executive Dir.): $77,347 total reported compensation
- Christopher D Massenburg: $70,918 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Movement ecosystem to address the root causes of climate change. Using popular education and cultural organizing, we ignite social transformation. We center all our work in the leadership of youth, Black, Indigenous and people of color, women, low wealth people, and LGBTQI+ people to create strategic alignment. We are bringing an end to fracked gas infrastructure, coal ash pollution, industrial agriculture and forest destruction while planting the seeds of a life-sustaining, regenerative society.
What it reported doing in 2025
Tap Root: NCCJC rooted its statewide power-building work in arts and cultural strategy. The organization organized its second TapRoot Arts Residency, welcoming 15 BIPOC artists ("artivists") into a year-long program that generates art to catalyze climate justice movement building. The residency launched with a five-day immersion at Lake Logan and produced original work marking the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene. NCCJC launched its inaugural 4Rs Indie Film Festival, selecting 7 winners from 25 submissions on the theme of just and regenerative futures; films were showcased through a virtual festival and public discussion. The organization anchored cultural strategy for the NC Environmental Justice People's Hearing: Speak Easy, Speak Free, where youth and elders performed the original multimedia show "Finding Our Balance, and Co-Director Connie Leeper facilitated the Mothers of the Environmental Justice Movement ceremony. NCCJC also organized The Art of Us a five-city cultural arts roadshow across Goldsboro, Durham, Fayetteville, Kinston, and Maxton in partnership with Resiliency Hub anchors and PowerUp NC, featuring more than 15 performers, 300 participants, and free distribution of the newly redesigned Inner Resilience toolkit.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 88% 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
MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up and program spending has grown recently. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and a relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 47
- Transparency & Controls: 86
- Accountability: 21
- Sustainability: 29
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 54.4%; rating input score 54
- Program expense ratio: 51.6%; rating input score 52
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 15th 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: 0%; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Limited
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -3.7%; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.8; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 32.3%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 16.5% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 5% per year; rating input score 100; 38th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 5.8% per year; rating input score 100; 39th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 54.4% of revenue deployed · 51.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 0 of 8 board members independent · 4 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $568K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $99K · 11 people listed
- Consistency: 26 of 27 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2021 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 5 filed money-flow records
- 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 0/100.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 54/100.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 52/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 22/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 37/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 7/100.