Youth Rights & Justice
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 930900864
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Portland, OR, USA
- Phone
- 5032322540
- Rating
- 90
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Civil Rights, Social Action, Advocacy N.E.C.
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $5,203,612
- Expenses
- $5,693,857
- Assets
- $3,696,054
- Liabilities
- $772,152
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
21 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- NAKIA BRADLEY-LAWSON (PRESIDENT)
- ELIZABETH WELCH (VICE-PRESIDENT)
- HEATHER BUSBY (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- LISA KAY WILLIAMS (SUPERVISING ATTORNEY): $154,697 total reported compensation
- HEATHER BUSBY (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $152,053 total reported compensation
- JENNIFER A MCGOWAN (SUPERVISING ATTORNEY): $147,343 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Youth, rights & justice advances the rights of children, parents, and families through advocacy in the courts, schools, legislature, and community. Founded in 1985 as public interest law firm, yrj provides holistic legal services and policy advocacy in multnomah county and statewide. We serve as public defenders, advocate for students to ensure equitable access to education, and provide leadership to reform the juvenile justice, child welfare and education systems through programs, policy advocacy, consultation, training, and impact litigation.
What it reported doing in 2024
Advocacy - the organization advocates for public policy reforms at the local and state levels to benefit children in foster care, youth in the justice system and children with disabilities. The organization also provides limited pro bono legal services and recruits and trains other attorneys to provide pro bono legal services to children outside of the defense and education programs.
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
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: 92
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 21
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 99.3%; rating input score 99
- Program expense ratio: 90.8%; rating input score 91
- Fundraising efficiency: $22.02 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
- 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: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -9.4%; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.65; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.21; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 15%; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 8% per year; rating input score 100; 56th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 6.5% per year; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 14.9% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 99.3% of revenue deployed · 90.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 15 of 15 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $5.2M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $155K · 21 people listed
- Consistency: 30 of 30 current checks pass
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 13 filing years from 2011 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 6 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.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 14/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 24/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 19/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 43/100.