Young Voices

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
812593815
IRS 990 coverage
2019–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Washington, DC, USA
Phone
2023501381
Rating
70
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,186,477
Expenses
$2,031,561
Assets
$1,409,887
Liabilities
$20,002

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Scott Barbee (Vice President)
  • Casey Given (President and CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • Casey Given (President and CEO): $187,966 total reported compensation
  • Addison Hosner (COO): $141,958 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

To cultivate the next generation of thought leaders for liberty in policy, journalism, and academia.

What it reported doing in 2024

Young Voices Debates: Launched in the fall of 2024, Young Voices Debates is a bold experiment to revive civil, high-level discourse on polarizing policy questions. Hosted monthly in New York City and streamed live, the Oxford-style series draws an average of 125 attendees per event in person and has amassed over 100,000 views across X, YouTube, and CiVL. Each debate pairs rising and established voices from across the ideological spectrum to tackle questions that matter, from foreign policy to civil liberties, in a format that rewards clarity over conflict. As an extension of our media training mission, Young Voices Debates gives our contributors and friends a space to sharpen their arguments, test ideas in real time, and model the kind of respectful exchange that's all too rare in today's media landscape.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 98% 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. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 67
  • Transparency & Controls: 63
  • Accountability: 87
  • Sustainability: 46
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 71.2%; rating input score 71
  • Program expense ratio: 76.1%; rating input score 76
  • Fundraising efficiency: $6.16 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 85.7%; rating input score 86; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 7.1%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.69; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 83; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 16.2%; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 31.1% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 27% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 27.4% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 71.2% of revenue deployed · 76.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 6 of 7 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 5 filed program accomplishments · $1.5M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $188K · 8 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 30 of 30 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2019 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 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.
  • 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.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 22/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 26/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 56/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 17/100.