The Commons Law Center

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
812672973
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2016
Location
Portland, OR, USA
Phone
5038500811
Rating
75
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Adult, Continuing Education

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,053,668
Expenses
$1,129,928
Assets
$520,984
Liabilities
$577,369

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

Leadership & pay

10 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • KAMRON GRAHAM (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
  • JOHN GRANT (BOARD PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • KAMRON GRAHAM (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $90,340 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Our mission is to provide legal help for everyday people - because no one should be denied the right to timely and affordable access to justice.

What it reported doing in 2024

Our expert family law attorneys helped guide clients through their cases with 398 coaching calls. We brought on jeffrey matthews, j.d. With 40 years of family law experience to mentor our attorneys and coach our clients. We developed a family law 101 series on youtube to help self-represented litigants make sense of the legal process and navigate their cases with confidence. The Oregon community foundation and the district court attorney admission fund are funding legal services for rose haven community members, focusing specifically on domestic violence and family law help, name & gender changes and powers of attorney & advance directives.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 90% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
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 a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 66
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 73
  • Sustainability: 22
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 75.6%; rating input score 76
  • Program expense ratio: 71.1%; rating input score 71
  • Fundraising efficiency: $0.67 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 88.9%; rating input score 89; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -7.2%; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.46; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 1.11; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 8%; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 16% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 17.7% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 30.8% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 75.6% of revenue deployed · 71.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 9 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $804K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $90K · 10 people listed
  • Consistency: 29 of 29 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2020 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 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.

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 3/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 20/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 22/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 5/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 44/100.