Northstar Advocates
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 871428320
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2021–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Seattle, WA, USA
- Phone
- 2062288657
- Rating
- 57
- Verdict
- MIXED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Alliance/Advocacy
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $694,000
- Expenses
- $432,457
- Assets
- $1,324,650
- Liabilities
- $34,272
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
4 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Jim Theofelis (Executive Director)
Highest reported compensation
- Jim Theofelis (Executive Director): $162,523 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Preventing and ending youth homelessness by supporting young people, strengthening families and communities, and holding the systems designed to serve them accountable.
What it reported doing in 2025
NorthStar Advocates is a leader in the state of Washington serving young people at the intersection of unaccompanied homelessness, system involvement, and the behavioral health crisis in our society. We made significant progress in 2025 in the design and implementation of HB 1929 to establish safe housing and services for young adults exiting an inpatient behavioral health treatment program. State data continue to show these young people at greatest risk of returning to homelessness within 30 days - 12 months upon exiting a system of care (foster care, juvenile rehabilitation and/or inpatient behavioral health treatment). NorthStar Advocates has provided training, consultation, and ongoing advocacy for the two programs in Washington state. During a very challenging budget crisis in Washington's legislature NorthStar Advocates advocated to protect the funding ensuring it remains in the state budget. We will collect relevant data to determine our advocacy agenda for expansion during the 2027 legislative session. Early data demonstrates NorthStar Advocates hypothesis was correct in that these young people do want to exit homelessness and are addressing their substance use disorder and/or mental health issues. This has resulted in young people securing safe housing, employment, educational goals and reconciliation with family and community. NorthStar Advocates has also sponsored a youth and young adult led behavioral health quarterly summit planning to be implemented in 2026.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 75% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 84% 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 most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 35
- Transparency & Controls: 65
- Accountability: 75
- Sustainability: 69
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 32.4%; rating input score 32
- Program expense ratio: 52.1%; rating input score 52
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 10th 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: 88.7%; rating input score 89; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 75%; rating input score 75; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- 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: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 37.7%; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.06; rating input score 75; 75th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 37.6%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 27.2% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 32.8% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 54.6% per year; rating input score 100; 96th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 32.4% of revenue deployed · 52.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 3 of 4 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $225K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $163K · 4 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 21 of 22 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2021 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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: Mission deployment rate scored 32/100.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 52/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 4/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 51/100.