Participatory Budgeting Oregon
Legal name: Particapatory Budgeting Oregon
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 844584551
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2021–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Portland, OR, United States
- Phone
- 5034757052
- Rating
- 60
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $345,037
- Expenses
- $148,808
- Assets
- $121,461
- Liabilities
- $1,463
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Jim Labbe (President)
Highest reported compensation
- Karol Wai (Board Member): $240 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
We work for more participatory and just public budgeting for all Oregonians by centering the expertise and leadership of underrepresented communities. Participatory Budgeting Oregon formed in 2018 after cohosting a Community Forum to explore bringing participatory budgeting (PB) to the Portland-metro Region. Conversations with national PB experts and local community leaders identified the need for a statewide organization to educate, organize and support launching and implementing PB grounded in the Forum's recommendations and our Theory of Change. Since our inception, we have prioritized building an organization and a team that values collaboration, participatory decision making, transparency, accountability, strong interpersonal relationships in and reflective practice. We center on equity, justice and inclusion with an emphasis on the r.
What it reported doing in 2024
Education Leadership development Participatory Budgeting PB Oregon trains students, municipal staff, elected officials, and the general public about pubic budgeting and participatory budgeting in particular in order to build community and government knowledge and capacity to implement transformative participatory budgeting. PB Oregon specifically builds leadership among youth and students to lead in participatory budgeting implementation and advocacy.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 99% 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
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and revenue comfortably covers expenses. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 45
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 47
- Sustainability: 64
- Growth: 40
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 29.2%; rating input score 29
- Program expense ratio: 66.6%; rating input score 67
- Fundraising efficiency: $18.67 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th 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: 60%; rating input score 60; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 2 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 29
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 56.9%; rating input score 93; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.82; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0.2%; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 10.2% per year; rating input score 100; 70th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -14.6% per year; rating input score 0; 4th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -34.4% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 3 programs and campaigns described on the official site
- Where the money goes: 29.2% of revenue deployed · 66.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 3 of 5 board members independent · 2 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $99K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $240 · 5 people listed
- Consistency: 25 of 25 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2021 to 2024
- 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.
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 29/100.
- High — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 6 not reported.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 56/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 35/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 37/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 44/100.