Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 521306960
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2015–2023
- Forms available
- Form 990 2013, Form 990-EZ 2023
- Location
- Washington, DC, USA
- Rating
- 46
- Verdict
- MIXED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Arts Service Organizations and Activities
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $130,963
- Expenses
- $119,748
- Assets
- $83,964
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2023. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
23 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- John Good (Executive Director)
- John Mason (President)
- Janet Fries (Vice President)
People named in this filing
- John Good (Executive Director)
- John Mason (President)
- Janet Fries (Vice President)
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 2023. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Education & Legal Assistance
What it reported doing in 2023
Provides legal services & support to the DC Arts Community by education programs, legal clinics, referrals & workshops to help creatives with the convergence of art & law.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 72% 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
MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up. 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: 3
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 57
- Growth: 40
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 3.3%; rating input score 3
- Program expense ratio: 3.7%; rating input score 4
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: 8.6%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.7; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -17.1% per year; rating input score 0; 11th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 4.9% per year; rating input score 100; 48th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -2.3% per year; rating input score 0; 21st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 3.3% of revenue deployed · 3.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $4K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 23 people listed
- Consistency: 7 of 7 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 8 filing years from 2015 to 2023
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
- 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.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 3/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 4/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 56/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 48/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.