Rhode Island Legal Services Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
050318596
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Providence, RI, USA
Phone
4012742652
Rating
76
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Human Services

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$8,421,942
Expenses
$8,698,875
Assets
$3,658,210
Liabilities
$1,229,758

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

30 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • ROBERT BARGE (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • ROBERT BARGE (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $178,558 total reported compensation
  • STEVEN FLORES (DIRECTOR OF LITIGATION): $173,815 total reported compensation
  • BRIDGETTE LOURO (DIRECTOR OF THE FAMILY LAW): $159,204 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Rhode Island legal services provides high quality legal assistance and representation to low-income individuals and eligible client groups for the purpose of improving their economic condition and overall wellbeing by protecting and enforcing legal rights, stabilizing the family unit and communities where clients live, promoting self-reliance, ending domestic violence, preventing homelessness, affording dignity to all people, and reaching out to groups with added burdens on their ability to access the civil justice system.

What it reported doing in 2025

Housing law center - rils provides substantial legal assistance in the housing area including: providing advice and representation to clients in eviction matters challenging the denial of admission to public and subsidized housing delivering legal education programs in the community and working with low income tenant groups to preserve and/or develop subsidized housing. The staff of the foreclosure prevention project litigate common mortgage-related issues and use bankruptcy as an additional strategy for home preservation. Major litigation of pre and post-foreclosure impact issues, with the national consumer law center, the nation's leading experts on foreclosure issues is envisioned. Rils foreclosure project staff will also represent tenants affected by foreclosure, educate borrowers and tenants who reside in foreclosed properties about their legal rights, and help develop new initiatives to keep defaulting borrowers and tenants who reside in foreclosed properties in their homes.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 94% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 82% 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 most voting board members are independent. The filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 82
  • Transparency & Controls: 56
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 18
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 93%; rating input score 93
  • Program expense ratio: 90%; rating input score 90
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 14th 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: Pass
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Missing
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 12.7%; rating input score 13; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 9 of 9 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: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -3.3%; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.42; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.34; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 12.4%; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 7.7% per year; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 5.5% per year; rating input score 100; 41st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 10.8% per year; rating input score 100; 61st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 93% of revenue deployed · 90% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 24 of 24 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $7.8M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $179K · 30 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 26 of 27 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 8 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.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 13/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 18/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 13/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 24/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 27/100.