Protect Democracy
Legal name: Protect Democracy Project
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 814777062
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2016–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2021
- Location
- Washington, DC, USA
- Phone
- 2026956590
- Rating
- 76
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Research Institutes and Public Policy Analysis
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $55,482,925
- Expenses
- $34,368,875
- Assets
- $94,771,289
- Liabilities
- $1,718,602
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- IAN BASSIN (PRESIDENT/EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- IAN BASSIN (PRESIDENT/EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $420,955 total reported compensation
- STEPHANIE LLANES (CO-MANAGING DIRECTOR): $344,515 total reported compensation
- JUSTIN FLORENCE (CO-MANAGING DIRECTOR): $328,444 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Protect Democracy is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to defeating the authoritarian movement and building a stronger, fairer democracy.
What it reported doing in 2024
Protect democracy project provides public education about threats to democratic norms and institutions and how the american people can best confront them. Protect democracy project advances its educational mission through monitoring, investigating, advocacy, lobbying, public outreach, and, when appropriate, litigating against actions that threaten our democracy and the free, fair, and fully-informed pursuit of self-government.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 94% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 74% for direct work, and 26% for grants.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of total spending goes to programs and the filed numbers largely add up. 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: 65
- Transparency & Controls: 83
- Accountability: 81
- Sustainability: 78
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 53.5%; rating input score 54
- Program expense ratio: 82.3%; rating input score 82
- Fundraising efficiency: $41.16 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 48th 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; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 38.1%; rating input score 94; 94th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.76; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 94; 94th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 6.8%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 27.8% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 25.2% per year; rating input score 100; 96th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 30.8% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 8 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 53.5% of revenue deployed · 82.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 3 of 4 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $28.3M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $421K · 11 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $2M reported
- Consistency: 36 of 36 current checks pass
- Schedules: 10 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 7 filing years from 2016 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 27 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 20 filed related-organization links
- 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.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 54/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Audit committee oversight not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 8/100.