Trial Impact Project

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
861434433
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Phone
2135425241
Rating
76
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Public Interest Law

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,769,827
Expenses
$1,915,545
Assets
$651,370
Liabilities
$13,465

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

Leadership & pay

10 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • John Hueston (President/Dir)

Highest reported compensation

  • Sara Haji (Executive Dir.): $238,080 total reported compensation
  • Marjorie Menza (Sr. Attorney): $187,351 total reported compensation
  • Ashley Artmann (Sr. Attorney): $166,656 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Advancing social justice by focusing on groundbreaking trial work and innovative collaboration across private, public and academic sectors. Our trial lawyers, veterans of historic cases, work closely with the next generation of leaders in the law to prevail in the nations most impactful, precedent-setting cases.

What it reported doing in 2025

In 2025, Trial Impact Project ("TIP" had two ongoing programs:1. Fellowship: One of TIPs two core missions is the fellowship program, which provides two years of intensive litigation training to recent law school graduates committed to working in civil rights. In September 2025, we welcomed three new fellows to our third fellowship cohort, and we were able to cover their moving expenses and bar fees. The fellows have joined our cases, working under the supervision of our senior staff attorneys and executive director to draft memoranda and briefs, research legal issues, and contribute to our community outreach and advocacy. After completing their first six months of training, our fellows begin developing their own investigations and building their own civil rights cases with the help of our team.2. Impact Litigation: TIP's other core mission is to develop precedent-setting litigation to advance social justice. Our first docket of cases included five major pieces of litigation, including two police misconduct cases with the ACLU of Louisianas Justice Lab and the Southern Poverty Law Center; one case in state court in Southern California that seeks to ease the burden of homelessness and reduce the punitive fines and fees associated with it; one major class-action case in federal court in Southern California that seeks to hold accountable a private prison and detention center operator that systematically poisoned immigrant detainees; and one case with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Knight First Amendment Institute in Northern California that aims to have San Mateo County reverse its policy of digitizing and destroying inmate mail. SJLF is also continuing investigation into potential new litigation.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 100% 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

SUPPORTED - 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 expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 79
  • Transparency & Controls: 74
  • Accountability: 79
  • Sustainability: 19
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 92%; rating input score 92
  • Program expense ratio: 85%; rating input score 85
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • 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: 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: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -8.2%; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.34; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 44.7%; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 24.4% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 11.6% per year; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 17.4% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 92% of revenue deployed · 85% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.6M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $238K · 10 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 29 of 29 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 5 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.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 15/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 17/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 3/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 53/100.