Tennessee Coalition for Open Government
Legal name: Tennessee Coalition for Open Government Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 651190353
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2021–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Jul 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025
- Location
- Nashville, TN, USA
- Phone
- 6156024080
- Rating
- 89
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Alliance/Advocacy Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $96,407
- Expenses
- $81,181
- Assets
- $110,349
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
23 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Deborah Fisher (Executive Director)
- Lucian Pera (President)
- Doug Pierce (Past President)
- Adam Yeomans (Vice President)
People named in this filing
- Deborah Fisher (Executive Director)
- Lucian Pera (President)
- Doug Pierce (Past President)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To promote and protect the public's right to know and access to government records and meetings in Tennessee.
What it reported doing in 2025
Research and Education: Research related to public records and open meetings practices in the state, including surveys and audits; research on laws and policies, and tracking of changes in laws and policies, including through court cases; monitoring of changes in practices due to the pandemic; sharing of information through website, newsletters, media interviews and other written material.
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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown and reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 82
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 56
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 76.6%; rating input score 77
- Program expense ratio: 90.5%; rating input score 91
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 15.8%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.36; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 80.7%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 4.6% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 6.4% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 5.9% per year; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 4 programs and campaigns described on the official site
- Where the money goes: 76.6% of revenue deployed · 90.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $73K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 23 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2021 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 56/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 1/100.