The Tony Patino Fellowship Corp

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
843688542
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2021
Location
Chicago, IL, USA
Phone
5039134376
Rating
82
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Fund Raising and Fund Distribution

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$771,368
Expenses
$653,762
Assets
$20,199,882
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

10 people listed

People named in this filing

  • MARTHA BELCHER ESQ (Chrmn Emerita)
  • STEPHAN P VAN LIERE ESQ (Chairman)
  • KENT SPRINKLE (Director)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

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

Overview

Mission

The Corporation is organized and shall be operated for the purposes of providing support to UC HASTINGS COLLEGE OF THE LAW (now known as UC LAW SAN FRANCISCO), Columbia Law School and University of Chicago School of Law (collectively, the "Schools"), all of which are nonprofit corporations, exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Code, and public charities under section 509 of the Code, or corresponding provisions hereafter in effect. Specifically, the Corporation shall provide support including the making or awarding of grants, scholarships, or other payments to individual beneficiaries who are members of the charitable class benefited by the Schools, and at all times:(1) the recipients shall be selected on an objective and nondiscriminatory basis consistent with the private foundation rules in Treas. Reg. section 53.4945-4(b); (2) the officers, directors, or trustees of the Schools shall have a significant voice in the timing of the payments, the manner of making them, and the selectio

What it reported doing in 2025

The corporation had a successful 2025 with the three law schools it supports.columbia law school. Selection day for columbia took place on september 13, 2025, which was attended by representatives from columbia law school, alumni and current students.at the selection day dinner, the corporation was proud to warmly welcome three new tony patio fellows from columbia law school class of 2025: skylar gleason, nathan porceng, and brandon reid. While navigating a period of upheaval at columbia, these new fellows looked to one another and to the fellowship community for support and connection. The corporation supported columbia law school by providing columbia law school fellows-elect a total of $113,750 in scholarship funds for the 2025 calendar year.in addition, the corporation spent approximately $22,541 on columbia law school related events benefiting the law students and law school such as the selection day dinner and fellows-elect dinners, lunches and lunches and dinners with the columbia fellows-elect and columbia law school alumni who serve as mentors to the students.the corporation received 68 applications for the columbia law school 1l 2025-2026 class year and incoming columbia 1l students reem ali and daniel gessen were selected as the new 1l fellows-elect for columbia law school.in addition, columbia has a law school representative on the corporationss screening, renewal and selection committees for columbia law school.the corporation also provided its annual report of information to columbia law school as required by the administration and operating agreement between the corporation and columbia law school.university of chicago law school. Selection day for chicago took place on october 4, 2025, which was attended by representatives from the law school, alumni and current students.at the selection day dinner, the corporation was proud to warmly welcome two new tony patio fellows from the university of chicago law school class of 2025: kelly bridges and sahar omer.the corporation supported the university of chicago law school by providing university of chicago law school fellows-elect a total of $105,000 in scholarship funds for the 2025 calendar year.in addition, the corporation spent approximately $19,513 on university of chicago law school related events benefiting the law students and law school such as the selection day dinner and fellows-elect dinners.the corporation received 46 applications for the university of chicago law school 1l 2025-2026 class year and incoming university of chicago law school 1l students nima majidi and alexis fintland were selected as the new 1l fellows-elect for the university of chicago law school. In addition, university of chicago law school has a law school representative on the corporations screening, renewal and selection committees for the university of chicago law school.the corporation also provided its annual report of information to university of chicago law school as required by the administration and operating agreement between the corporation and university of law school law school.uc law san francisco. Selection day for uc law san francisco took place on august 23, 2025, which was attended by representatives from the law school, alumni and current students.at the selection day dinner, the corporation was proud to warmly welcome two new tony patio fellows from the uc law sf class of 2025: nooran alhamdan and julie mendoza. Nooran and julie both exemplify the values of the fellowship and share a view of law as a calling rooted in service.the corporation supported uc law san francisco by providing uc law san francisco fellows-elect a total of $105,000 in scholarship funds for the 2025 calendar year.in addition, the corporation spent approximately $18,466 on uc law san francisco fellowship related events benefiting the law students and law school such as the selection day dinner, mentorship program, and fellows-elect dinners.the corporation received 75 applications for the uc la

Operating model

Revenue model
Investment-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from recurring investment income.
Distribution model
Grant intermediary. The nonprofit sent 68% of its reported program spending out as grants.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and revenue has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 77
  • Transparency & Controls: 93
  • Accountability: 82
  • Sustainability: 79
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 94.2%; rating input score 94
  • Program expense ratio: 72.7%; rating input score 73
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

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: 100%; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 4 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 57
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • 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: 15.2%; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 30.9; rating input score 98; 98th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 5.7% per year; rating input score 100; 40th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -40.3% per year; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 31% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 94.2% of revenue deployed · 72.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 4 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $475K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 10 people listed
  • Consistency: 24 of 24 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes grants
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 6 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.