RAND Corporation
Legal name: The Rand Corporation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 951958142
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Location
- Santa Monica, CA, United States
- Phone
- (310) 393-0411
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Research Institutes and Public Policy Analysis
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $534,596,094
- Expenses
- $527,283,384
- Assets
- $773,342,549
- Liabilities
- $258,593,702
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
36 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Jason Matheny (President & CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- Jason Matheny (President & CEO): $1,182,669 total reported compensation
- Andrew Hoehn (SVP, Research and Analysis): $750,663 total reported compensation
- Eric Peltz (SVP, Finance & Operations): $678,807 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
RAND helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. The 2022 standards are framed as commitments to principles and actions that advance quality. They are mutually reinforcing, albeit with some intentional overlap among them. The standards are coupled with guidance about how to apply them in review of research products, at project kickoff, and during in-progress review. This guidance helps harmonize our quality assurance and other research-support activities across project life cycles. We revisit these standards periodically based on information collected from within and outside RAND. Standards for High-Quality and Objective Research and Analysis include these six pillars: Engagement, Inclusion, Relevance, Rigor, Transparency, and Legitimacy.
What it reported doing in 2024
Public policy research all in the furtherance of our charter 'to further and promote scientific, educational, and charitable purposes all for the public welfare and security of the united states the operation of doctoral and degree programs.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 68% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 99% 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 84
- Transparency & Controls: 81
- Accountability: 93
- Sustainability: 47
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 85.5%; rating input score 85
- Program expense ratio: 83.3%; rating input score 83
- Fundraising efficiency: $103.06 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 5 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 83
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Pass
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 95.7%; rating input score 96; 49th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- 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: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 1.4%; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.47; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.33; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 1.5%; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 5.1% per year; rating input score 100; 41st percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 4.3% per year; rating input score 100; 36th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 4.6% per year; rating input score 100; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 3 programs and campaigns described on the official site
- Where the money goes: 85.5% of revenue deployed · 83.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 22 of 23 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $439M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $1.2M · 36 people listed · 5 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $8.9M reported
- Consistency: 40 of 40 current checks pass
- Schedules: 11 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, executive pay, and related organizations
- Filing history: 16 filing years from 2009 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 24 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
- 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 — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 39/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Form 990 shared with the board not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 52/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 52/100.