RefugeeOne
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 363817743
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Chicago, IL, United States
- Phone
- 773-989-5647
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Christianity
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $14,834,168
- Expenses
- $12,854,599
- Assets
- $16,946,726
- Liabilities
- $1,558,464
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
22 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JENNIFER BORRELL (PRESIDENT)
- MELINEH KANO (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- MELINEH KANO (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $280,016 total reported compensation
- ERMIAS GHILIAZGHI (FINANCIAL DIRECTOR): $215,879 total reported compensation
- RICHARD J VAN HEES (DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT): $156,429 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Every year, RefugeeOne serves more than 2,500 refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants of all ages, ethnic groups, faiths, and backgrounds. Our primary focus is to assist these resilient individuals in becoming independent, self-supporting members of their new Chicagoland community. We provide holistic services (housing support, English language training, mental health care, employment coaching, youth programs, dental care, and more – at no cost to program participants!) to help newcomers build flourishing lives in Chicago.
What it reported doing in 2024
Refugeeone is the Illinois affiliate of 1 national resettlement agency, church world service. This resettlement agency holds reception & placement contracts with department of state, and receives funding to resettle refugee cases approved to enter the us. The reception & placement program provides pre-arrival processing of the cases, as well as post arrival case management up to 90 days from the date of arrival.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 67% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
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 total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 75
- Transparency & Controls: 70
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 63
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 73.3%; rating input score 73
- Program expense ratio: 84.4%; rating input score 84
- Fundraising efficiency: $24.62 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- 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: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th 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: 13.3%; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.32; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.09; rating input score 75; 75th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 5.1%; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 14.9% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 14.5% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 25% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 73.3% of revenue deployed · 84.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 19 of 19 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $10.8M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $280K · 22 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 33 of 33 current checks pass
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 13 filing years from 2011 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 46/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 50/100.