Public Justice Foundation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 591730478
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Washington, DC, USA
- Phone
- 2027978600
- Rating
- 73
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Professional Societies, Associations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $11,730,058
- Expenses
- $9,223,864
- Assets
- $22,892,603
- Liabilities
- $5,539,938
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
98 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JANET R VARNELL (PRESIDENT)
- ELLEN A PRESBY (VICE-PRESIDENT/PRESIDENT-ELECT(11/24))
- PRESTON TISDALE (IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT)
- THOMAS M SOBOL (PAST PRESIDENT)
- BETH TERELL (PAST PRESIDENT)
- MICHAEL L PITT (PAST PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- TAMMY W SUN (VICE PRESIDENT, LEGAL AFFAIRS): $256,913 total reported compensation
- KELLY SIMON (VICE PRESIDENT OF DEVELOPMENT AND MEMBERSHIP): $221,736 total reported compensation
- STEVE RALLS (VICE PRESIDENT, COMMUNICATIONS, MARKETING & BRANDI): $218,538 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Public justice takes on the biggest systematic threats to justice of our time-abusive corporate power and predatory practices, the assault on civil rights and liberties, and the destruction of the earth's sustainability. We connect high-impact litigation with strategic communications and the strength of our partnerships to fight these abusive and discriminatory systems and win social and economic justice.
What it reported doing in 2024
Access to justice - the access to justice project uses litigation, advocacy, and organizing to help people and workers harmed by corporate or governmental abuses by fighting against procedural and structural barriers that prevent them from seeking systemic change and vindicating their rights in transparent and publicly accountable forums. The project fights for workers and consumers against efforts to force their claims into arbitration, preserves public access to court records and discovery materials, combats narrow applications of article iii standing that keep individuals and organizations from pursuing justice in federal court, works to preserve the class-action device as it is often the only route to force structural change, dismantle immunity doctrines and other procedural barriers to make the civil justice system more accessible for incarcerated people and their families.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 83% 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 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: 54
- Transparency & Controls: 77
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 66
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 53.3%; rating input score 53
- Program expense ratio: 62.2%; rating input score 62
- Fundraising efficiency: $9.71 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- 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: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Scored; rating input score 0
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
- 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: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 21.4%; rating input score 83; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.48; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.24; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 16.1%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 8.4% per year; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 6.9% per year; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 9.7% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 53.3% of revenue deployed · 62.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 89 of 89 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 6 filed program accomplishments · $5.7M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $257K · 98 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 34 of 34 current checks pass
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes executive pay and related organizations
- Filing history: 9 filing years from 2011 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 7 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.
- 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 53/100.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 37/100.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Related-party transparency scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 7/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 53/100.