Prison Policy Initiative
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 203671130
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Northampton, MA, USA
- Phone
- 4135270845
- Rating
- 74
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Voter Education, Registration
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $3,075,124
- Expenses
- $1,911,368
- Assets
- $9,516,444
- Liabilities
- $66,619
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Lucius Couloute (President)
- Peter Wagner (Executive Director)
Highest reported compensation
- Peter Wagner (Executive Director): $258,437 total reported compensation
- Wendy Sawyer (Research Director): $194,348 total reported compensation
- Mike Wessler (Communications Director): $159,093 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 Organization challenges over-criminalizationand mass incarceration through research, advocacyand organizing.
What it reported doing in 2024
The Prison Policy Initiative produces cutting-edge research to expose the broader harms of mass incarceration, and sparks advocacy campaigns to create a more just society. Our work is a unique combination of research, advocacy, and organizing, and is designed around two goals: achieving real change on specific issues, and building a national consensus around the fact that over-criminalization is hurting our entire society. This year our publications focused on a range of issues including providing the reform movement with the data and analysis it needs to counter jail expansion and stimulate jail reform; explaining how officials at the various levels of government can and cannot use their power to better or worsen the criminal legal system; and exposing how policies that are supposedly intended to benefit incarcerated people often harm them instead. In addition to our research, we provided technical support to advocates in twenty-four states who are fighting for meaningful criminal legal system reforms.
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
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and most voting board members are independent. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 71
- Transparency & Controls: 60
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 76
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 61.3%; rating input score 61
- Program expense ratio: 90.4%; rating input score 90
- Fundraising efficiency: $28.48 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 7th 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: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- 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: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 37.8%; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.98; rating input score 83; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 53%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 19.8% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 18.9% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 24% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 61.3% of revenue deployed · 90.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.7M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $258K · 10 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 26 of 27 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2011 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 6 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Document-retention policy not reported.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 1/100.