Rebuild Democracy
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 922291828
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2023–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Washington, DC, USA
- Phone
- 2027467264
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Research Institutes and Public Policy Analysis
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $212,974
- Expenses
- $817,252
- Assets
- $454,000
- Liabilities
- $105,931
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
4 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Mark Weisbrot (President)
People named in this filing
- Mark Weisbrot (President)
- Dean Baker (Treasurer)
- Sherri Moses (Secretary)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Rebuild Democracy works to dismantle the corruption that undermines democracy, environmental stewardship, and economic security in the United States.
What it reported doing in 2024
Conducted 2 focus groups on distrust among Diverse-Community Focused (10 participants from across America) and Alienated Populists (9 participants from across America); These two focus groups were conducted nationwide, one among Diverse Community Focused voters and one among Alienated Populist voters. All participants were screened to not be strong supporters of any presidential candidate. The groups were conducted on July 25 & 30, 2024. We then conducted an online randomized control trial of the US general population. The trial was conducted from August 30 - September 1, 2024. We sampled 6,404 adults, with 4,251 in our test groups and 2,153 in the control sample. The sample was stratified and weighted by gender, ethnicity, age, education, and urbanization to match census data. We tested four messages against a control to measure movement on convincing rating, favorability of a hypothetical messenger, trust in a hypothetical messenger, engagement, and mobilization. Through this randomized control trial, we identified messages raising alienated voters trust by +6.8 points, favorability by +9.3 points, engagement by +11.5 points. We then published an 6-page Trust Toolkit and 5-page Appendix and distributed it to media, civic groups, research groups.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 83% 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.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 78
- Transparency & Controls: 93
- Accountability: 82
- Sustainability: 19
- Growth: 40
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 67.1%; rating input score 67
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
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: 100%; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 57
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Fail
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -283.7%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.56; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.23; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 122.5% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -136.5% per year; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -92.4% per year; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 3 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 67.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 4 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $548K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 4 people listed
- Highest-paid contractors: 2 contractors listed · $324K reported
- Consistency: 24 of 24 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes grants
- Filing history: 2 filing years from 2023 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 2 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 6 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 1/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 27/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 18/100.