Salt & Light Coalition
Legal name: Salt and Light Coalition Nfp
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 814602703
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2019–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Aug 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2018, Form 990-N 2017
- Location
- Chicago, IL, USA
- Phone
- (312) 685-2498
- Rating
- 63
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Family Violence Shelters
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $898,321
- Expenses
- $777,716
- Assets
- $6,459,683
- Liabilities
- $17,707
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- IZABEL OLSON (President & CEO)
People named in this filing
- IZABEL OLSON (President & CEO)
- KAREN HICKMAN (Trustee)
- AUDRINA SINCLAIR (Trustee)
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
Salt and Light Coalition empowers survivors of human trafficking to thrive through a trauma-informed, three-step approach that equips them with self-awareness, workplace readiness, and ongoing support.
What it reported doing in 2024
Salt and ight coalition is a grassroots movement mobilizing individuals and organizations to empower survivors to live meaningful and purposeful lives. The salt and light coalition prioritizes depth, not reach. We focus on completely transforming the lives of women who then change the lives of their families, communities, and surrounding world. When you invest in women, your dividend is higher, a phenomenon that the world bank calls the girl effect. Focusing on the deeply transformative poser of women exponentially grows our impact. On average, thrivers see a 20% decrease in their depression scores during their year with salc, a 23% decrease in their anxiety scores, and 19% increase in their self-esteem. 47% of thrivers come into salc without a high school degree. Upon graduation 79% have their high school diploma or ged. Although only 11% ov thrivers have work history coming in, 75% are working at graduation. Only 16% of thrivers come to salc with stable housing, but at graduation, 75% have stable housing.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 67% for direct work, and 33% for grants.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and program spending has grown recently. The filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 57
- Transparency & Controls: 65
- Accountability: 59
- Sustainability: 76
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 64.6%; rating input score 65
- Program expense ratio: 59.7%; rating input score 60
- Fundraising efficiency: $2.61 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 94.1%; rating input score 94; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 0%; rating input score 0; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 60%; rating input score 60; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 57
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 13.4%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 8.31; rating input score 90; 90th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 20.7% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 17.7% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 39.6% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 3 programs and campaigns described on the official site
- Where the money goes: 64.6% of revenue deployed · 59.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 3 of 5 board members independent · 4 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $465K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
- Consistency: 32 of 33 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2019 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- 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 0/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 8/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.