Vital Immigrant Defense Advocacy & Services
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 901019558
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2016–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2015
- Location
- Santa Rosa, CA, USA
- Phone
- 7075231740
- Rating
- 86
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Education N.E.C.
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,651,279
- Expenses
- $1,599,967
- Assets
- $536,495
- Liabilities
- $340,771
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
9 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- LUIS BRAVO (PRESIDENT)
- TONI WINTER (VICE PRESIDENT)
- MONICA JULIAN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
- CARIN HEWITT (INTERIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- MONICA JULIAN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $102,981 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Vidas provides trauma-informed immigration legal advocacy and community wellness programs.
What it reported doing in 2024
In 2024, vidas continued to sustainably expand capacity to provide trauma-informed immigration legal advocacy throughout the north bay area. We have four offices and a team of over 25 people from all over the world. Vidas secured affirmative relief for over 600 people, provided full scope representation for people facing deportation and family separation, developed a robust pro se program for community members facing immigration court without representation, and offered community outreach, education, and consultation to thousands. Vidas specializes in removal defense, asylum, special immigrant juvenile status, and other forms of humanitarian forms of relief. In 2024, vidas was also selected as one of several organizations statewide to pilot the deferred action for labor enforcement (dale) program providing outreach and application assistance for agricultural workers experiencing workplace exploitation.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- 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. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 89
- Transparency & Controls: 86
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 33
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 91%; rating input score 91
- Program expense ratio: 93.9%; rating input score 94
- Fundraising efficiency: $30.03 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- 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: 3.1%; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.34; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.64; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 6.4%; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 20.7% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 19.7% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 12.7% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 91% of revenue deployed · 93.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.5M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $103K · 9 people listed
- Consistency: 25 of 26 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 9 filing years from 2016 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 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.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 45/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 16/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 12/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 49/100.