Open Primaries Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 471494685
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2018–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- New York, NY, USA
- Phone
- 6462050202
- Rating
- 64
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Standard
- Sector
- Alliance/Advocacy
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $741,959
- Expenses
- $368,755
- Assets
- $1,858,601
- Liabilities
- $58,143
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JOHN OPDYCKE (President)
- JEREMY GRUBER (Senior Vice President)
Highest reported compensation
- JOHN OPDYCKE (President): $273,773 total reported compensation
- JEREMY GRUBER (Senior Vice President): $225,460 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The mission of Open Primaries is to advocate for open and nonpartisan systems, counter efforts to impose closed primaries, educate voters, train and support spokespeople, and participate in the building of local, state and national open primaries coalitions.
What it reported doing in 2024
Open Primaries advocated for and supported adoption of open and nonpartisan primary systems in eight different states, and helped successfully pass primary reform in Washington DC. They helped incubate campaigns in several other states. They organized coalitions to successfully defeat efforts to close the primaries in six states. Open Primaries built new partnerships at the local and national level, and developed new approaches to primary reform in state legislatures.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 96% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 97% 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
SUPPORTED - 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 fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 49
- Transparency & Controls: 69
- Accountability: 75
- Sustainability: 76
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 37.4%; rating input score 37
- Program expense ratio: 70%; rating input score 70
- Fundraising efficiency: $13.57 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 8th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 75%; rating input score 75; 16th 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: 50.3%; rating input score 92; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 5.04; rating input score 85; 85th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 38.5%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 10.5% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 16% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 25.4% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 37.4% of revenue deployed · 70% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 3 of 4 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $258K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $274K · 5 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 6 filing years from 2018 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
- 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 37/100.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 47/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 4/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 58/100.