Undocumented Migration Projectinc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
832986189
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2019–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2020, Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2018
Location
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Rating
49
Verdict
MIXED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Humanities Organizations

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$97,139
Expenses
$68,043
Assets
$106,963
Liabilities
$774

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

Leadership & pay

4 people listed

People named in this filing

  • Gina Tan (Director)
  • Julia Wells (Director)
  • Michael Wells (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-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Mission listed on website: The Undocumented Migration Project UMP is a long-term anthropological study of clandestine movement between Latin America and the United States that uses ethnography, archaeology, visual anthropology, and forensic science to understand this violent social process and raise awareness through research, education, and public outreach.

What it reported doing in 2025

Public Outreach: The UMP aims to take social science research and translate that data into large-scale, interdisciplinary, public outreach endeavors intended to raise awareness around issues related to immigration and social justice. The UMP's current spotlight endeavor, Hostile Terrain 94 HT94, is a participatory exhibition combining education and art occurring in nearly 150 cities around the globe. HT94 seeks to illuminate and create a public discourse around the humanitarian crisis occurring at the U.S.-Mexico Border. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the exhibition has been extended far beyond its original end date of 2020 and will continue into 2026. As of December 2025, nearly 150 exhibitions have occurred around the globe. It is anticipated that by the end of 2025 between 75,000 and 100,000 people will have participated in the creation of the exhibition. These numbers do not include the thousands of anticipated visitors to the exhibitions nor those reached virtually.

Operating model

Revenue model
Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent revenue detail to tell how this nonprofit funds its work.
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

MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up and revenue comfortably covers expenses. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 8
  • Transparency & Controls: 100
  • Sustainability: 65
  • Growth: 40

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 7.5%; rating input score 7
  • Program expense ratio: 10.7%; rating input score 11

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 30%; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.57; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 11.2% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -1.2% per year; rating input score 0; 45th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -0.3% per year; rating input score 0; 36th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 7.5% of revenue deployed · 10.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $7K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 4 people listed
  • Consistency: 7 of 7 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2019 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.

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 7/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 11/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 59/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 26/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.