Public Policy Lab Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
274631171
IRS 990 coverage
2015–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2014
Location
Brooklyn, NY, USA
Phone
6465356535
Rating
73
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Management & Technical Assistance

Reported finances

Revenue
$4,249,465
Expenses
$4,404,207
Assets
$1,065,413
Liabilities
$549,867

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

10 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • CHELSEA MAULDIN (Exec Dir.): $204,295 total reported compensation
  • SHANTI MATTHEW (MANAGING DIR.): $162,603 total reported compensation
  • Rajesh Kottamasu (SP Design and Stra): $145,751 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 Public Policy Lab is a nonprofit innovation lab. Our mission is to design policies and programs that help poor and marginalized Americans build better lives. To do that, we partner with government agencies, philanthropies, and NGOs and the communities they serve to develop more satisfying and effective services through ethnographic research, human-centered design, rapid prototyping, and formative evaluation.

What it reported doing in 2024

For the National Science Foundation, and in collaboration with a diverse cohort of entrepreneurial innovators from historically underrepresented communities, PPL is leading a project to co-create and pilot a series of tools and resources to meaningfully increase the nationwide involvement of underrepsented groups in accessing federal seed funding to bring their innovations to market.For the Scan Foundation, we are working on the Public Prospective Longitudinal Understanding Study of 65+ Adults (PPLUS65), an initiative to accelerate policy change and health-systems improvement for and with older Americans, especially those from low-income; rural or geographically underserved; and/or Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. In mid-2024, we will launch a public platform to showcase research data collected and outputs produced, with a goal to help policymakers and systems leaders better incorporate older Americans' needs and preferences into social-scale programs.With SUNY's Office of Higher Education in Prison (OHEP)and CUNY's Institute for State and Local Governance (ISLG), we aimed to strengthen the support network that's available to formerly incarcerated students during reentry in New York City, by enhancing collaboration amongst higher education institutions and reentry service providers.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 74% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 81% 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 69
  • Transparency & Controls: 79
  • Accountability: 78
  • Sustainability: 17
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 75.4%; rating input score 75
  • Program expense ratio: 72.7%; rating input score 73
  • Fundraising efficiency: $6.4 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 71.4%; rating input score 71; 12th 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: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -3.6%; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.24; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.52; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 18%; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 27.6% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 25.3% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 23.5% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 75.4% of revenue deployed · 72.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 7 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $3.2M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $204K · 10 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 29 of 29 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 10 filing years from 2015 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 26 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 21 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.

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 23/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 23/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 7/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 14/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 20/100.