The Opportunity Agenda Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
843935514
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2019
Location
New York, NY, USA
Phone
2123345977
Rating
81
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Alliance/Advocacy Organizations

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,587,753
Expenses
$5,397,275
Assets
$708,798
Liabilities
$1,001,592

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

18 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • TRACI LESTER (PRESIDENT)
  • ROBIN JENKINS (INTERIM PRESIDENT, THRU 2/21/25)

Highest reported compensation

  • TRACI LESTER (PRESIDENT): $268,029 total reported compensation
  • SOHA ELLAITHY (VP OF INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT): $240,678 total reported compensation
  • ELIZABETH JOHNSEN (VP OF PROGRAM STRATEGY & IMPACT): $219,587 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The opportunity agenda's mission is to create opportunity for everyone by advancing narratives that champion a multi-racial democracy while dismantling narratives rooted in systemic racism and white supremacy.

What it reported doing in 2025

Our programs aim to build the capacity of the social justice field to empower them to use narrative, communications, and culture to change how people perceive social justice issues including racial justice, democracy, immigration, health, public safety, and economic justice. In 2025, we trained 5,000+ social justice activists, advocates, and artists in narrative and cultural strategies. We provided research-backed narrative and cultural messaging tools and resources to a network of 30,000+ advocates, funders, artists, policymakers, and other social justice leaders to amplify their voices and effectiveness as storytellers. For our narrative innovators lab, we concluded the program in march 2025 that provided training and support to 10 social justice leaders and 7 artists to develop narrative and cultural interventions to advance a multiracial society.at the end of 2025, the organization sunsetted operations and transferred their programmatic work to other nonprofit organizations. The organization is in the process of winding down operations.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 86% 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 85
  • Transparency & Controls: 84
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 4
  • Growth: 40

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 84.5%; rating input score 84
  • Fundraising efficiency: $3.61 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Pass
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • 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: -239.9%; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.13; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 1.41; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 25.2%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 24.4% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -20% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -12.9% per year; rating input score 0; 3rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 84.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $4.6M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $268K · 18 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 4 contractors listed · $771K reported
  • Consistency: 30 of 30 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2020 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 9 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.
  • 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.

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 11/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 7/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 2/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 11/100.