Other 98 Percent Action Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
043578179
IRS 990 coverage
2014–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Seattle, WA, USA
Phone
9712294645
Rating
71
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Alliance/Advocacy

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,042,643
Expenses
$900,574
Assets
$673,861
Liabilities
$35,236

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

6 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • John Sellers (Executive Director)
  • Andrew Boyd (President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Andrew Menconi (Creative Director): $164,350 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The Mission of The Other 98% is simple but bold: To be a storytelling force that educates people and stirs them to fight for justice. We challenge the stranglehold that billionaires and corporations have on our government by creating our own educational tools and crafting our own narrative, one that sparks the sustained engagement and action we need to build a healthy democracy.

What it reported doing in 2025

With 10M Followers, Other 98 is one of the loudest voices in the progressive social media world, reaching 30 to 40 million people every day: more engagement than the New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN. This is a level of penetration that only TV networks have. Case in point: we reach more folks on Facebook each day than are watching Fox News on their TVs. Other98 uses our massive platform to dominate the narrative around the most important political and social issues of the day, including the fights for economic justice, democracy, women's rights, racial equality, workers' rights, and climate justice.

Operating model

Revenue model
Other-operating. 99% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
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

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 73
  • Transparency & Controls: 70
  • Accountability: 69
  • Sustainability: 47
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 76.9%; rating input score 77
  • Program expense ratio: 89.1%; rating input score 89
  • Fundraising efficiency: $0.29 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 2 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 25
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 13.6%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.75; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 18.2%; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 10% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 10.8% per year; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 21.2% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 76.9% of revenue deployed · 89.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 2 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $802K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $164K · 6 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 2 contractors listed · $452K reported
  • Consistency: 32 of 32 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 11 filing years from 2014 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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: Governance controls: 5 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 2/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 35/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 19/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 43/100.