Spotlight Pa C/o Christopher Baxter

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
920577182
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Harrisburg, PA, USA
Phone
9739439130
Rating
70
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Professional Societies, Associations

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$6,281,904
Expenses
$3,489,395
Assets
$7,588,741
Liabilities
$82,904

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

Leadership & pay

12 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • CHRISTOPHER BAXTER (CEO & PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • CHRISTOPHER BAXTER (CEO & PRESIDENT): $264,934 total reported compensation
  • SARAH ANNE HUGHES (DEPUTY EDITOR): $144,618 total reported compensation
  • MATTHEW DEMPSEY (SENIOR EDITOR FOR INVESTIGATIONS): $138,276 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 mission of spotlight pa is to hold powerful public and private forces, especially governments, elected officials, businesses, and special interests, to account through urgent and compelling investigative and public service journalism that drives change and strengthens our democracy, the state, and all who live here.

What it reported doing in 2024

Spotlight pa is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to high-quality investigative and public-service journalism about the Pennsylvania state government and urgent statewide issues, including elections, voting, the governor, the legislature, rural communities, criminal justice, economic development, health, human services, and more. Spotlight pa was founded to address a crisis in journalism in Pennsylvania: the ongoing and rapid decline of corporate-owned legacy news outlets, which is greatly diminishing access to trusted, contextual, and factual reporting across the state. Spotlight pa is uncovering stories that would otherwise go untold and cutting through partisanship and misinformation to deliver trusted, reliable journalism at no cost to all in Pennsylvania. (continued in schedule o)we make our journalism available at no cost via spotlightpa.org, several email newsletters, virtual events, and via more than 100 community news partners, including newspapers, public radio, and digital outlets in Pennsylvania.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 98% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
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

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 51
  • Transparency & Controls: 79
  • Accountability: 87
  • Sustainability: 72
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 40.8%; rating input score 41
  • Program expense ratio: 70.8%; rating input score 71
  • Fundraising efficiency: $11.52 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • 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: 85.7%; rating input score 86; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 44.5%; rating input score 90; 90th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.17; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 85; 85th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 26.6%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 62.8% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 57.7% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 88.7% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 40.8% of revenue deployed · 70.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 6 of 7 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $2.5M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $265K · 12 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 30 of 32 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2022 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 6 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.

Key Signals

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

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 41/100.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 42/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: CEO compensation review process not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 7/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule D expense reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule D revenue reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.