Sociedad Para Asistencia Legal De Puerto Rico Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
660217275
IRS 990 coverage
2021–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
San Juan, PR, USA
Phone
7877653875
Rating
83
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Legal Services

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$22,100,003
Expenses
$18,208,991
Assets
$24,185,791
Liabilities
$2,502,863

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

Leadership & pay

10 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • JESUS M RIVERA DELGADO (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • FELIX VELEZ ALEJANDRO (EXECUTIVE DI): $144,830 total reported compensation
  • HECTOR A DIAZ (FINANCE DIRE): $94,543 total reported compensation
  • VICTOR R MALDONADO MARTINEZ (HR DIRECTOR): $89,320 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 organization provides free legal services to indigent persons charged with criminal offense, in order to guarantee the equal protection of their rights.

What it reported doing in 2024

During the 2024-2025 fiscal year, sociedad para asistencia legal de puerto rico inc. (sal) provided free legal services to citizens accused of crimes, ensuring their constitutional entitlement to legal representation. In cases of serious felonies, citizens were represented from the preliminary hearing through to the end of the criminal proceedings, including the appeals stage if required. During the preliminary hearing phase, a total of 3,667 clients were represented across 5,695 resolved cases. During the trial phase, 5,605 cases were resolved. Out of this total, 4,897 are classified as felonies. Throughout this time, sal also provided representation for minors charged with offenses in the juvenile court at every stage of the process. A total of 161 youth received counseling. There were 33 hearings for juvenile apprehensions, 337 probable cause hearings, and 315 adjudicatory hearings in the juvenile court. In drug court cases, 169 clients were represented across an additional 372 cases. Sal took part in 1,646 report back court appearances in drug court on behalf of its clients. In the special matters division, legal advice was provided on various issues, but it was mainly directed at clients incarcerated for cases before the parole board, the department of corrections, and courts relating to multiple post-conviction relief matters. Furthermore, throughout this time, we handled 1,883 new mental health law cases under the program for legal assistance in mental health processes (palpsm). Including the court report back, we participated in 14,330 occurrences.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 99% 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.

The verdict

STRONG - 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: 72
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 69
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 74.7%; rating input score 75
  • Program expense ratio: 90.3%; rating input score 90
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • 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: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • 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: 17.6%; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.33; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.1; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 1.8%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 7.3% per year; rating input score 100; 57th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 8.4% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 17.7% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 74.7% of revenue deployed · 90.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $16.4M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $145K · 10 people listed
  • Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $103K reported
  • Consistency: 33 of 33 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2021 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
  • 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.

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 46/100.
  • High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.
  • High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.