Is it real?
Yes. Never revoked by the IRS. Latest filing on record: FY2024. IRS ruling in Apr 2017.
IRS Pub. 78 · IRS Auto-Revocation List · IRS Business Master File
Where the money goes
85 cents of each dollar spent went to programs.
Form 990 Part IX, line 25, columns B–D. Every line is in By the numbers.
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Who runs it and what they're paid
12 people listed on the 990; $317K paid to officers and key staff.
Robert Brandon’s $270K as President & CEO is at the 91st percentile of top reported officer pay among 797 $1–10M civil rights & advocacy nonprofits. Peer set: organizations in the same NTEE major field of work and revenue-size band, compared on each org’s own highest-paid officer/key-employee, from Form 990 Part VII / 990-PF Part VIII. Descriptive placement, not a verdict on whether the pay is appropriate.
Compensation history total reportable pay by year · 8 named individuals · Part VII
| Name | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | FY2021 | FY2020 | FY2019 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Robert Brandon | $269,918 | $259,168 | — | — | $200,000 | $188,000 |
| Robert M Brandon | — | — | $254,600 | $244,600 | — | — |
| Rebekah Caruthers | $195,203 | $189,492 | $185,747 | $139,551 | — | — |
| Jonathan Sherman | $133,178 | $137,576 | — | — | — | — |
| Michelle Kanter-Cohen | $134,877 | $131,114 | — | — | — | — |
| Jon Sherman | — | — | $131,529 | $121,218 | $117,104 | $104,844 |
| Michael Burns | $125,794 | $123,652 | $123,890 | $112,600 | — | — |
| Michelle Kanter Cohen | — | — | $122,692 | $108,480 | — | — |
Total reportable compensation (Form 990 Part VII column D / Schedule J column E) by filing year, matched by name within this organization. The Schedule J base / bonus / deferred breakdown is not parsed into this dataset.
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Questions the 990 asks
The form asks each of these directly. These are the filed answers.
- Family or business ties among officersPt VI · Ln 2No
- Top official's pay set by an independent reviewPt VI · Ln 15aYes
Programs and updates
Advocates for election law reform to expand ballot access, support administrators, and empower underrepresented communities.
Questions for Fair Elections Center
Your first name shows with your question. Fair Elections Center answers here, for everyone.
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Campus Vote Project (cvp)
CVP works with universities community colleges, faculty, students and election officials to reduce barriers to student voting. The program helps campus leadership institutionalize reforms that empower students with the information they need to register and vote.
Litigation
The fair elections center's legal team focuses on cases where we can leverage our expertise and state and federal laws to have maximum impact to bring down barriers to registration and voting that affect traditionally underrepresented constituencies: students and youth, the elderly, language minority and immigrant communities and…
A major effort at poll worker recruitment to meet poll worker shortage: in 2020, we expanded the states covered by fair elections center's poll worker recruitment web portal, WORKELECTIONS.COM designed to facilitate poll worker recruitment from nine states to forty-seven states and created a campaign to reach businesses, social service…
Funders
Who pays for it.
From grant filings on record. Receipts are incomplete: individual donors are never listed.
Grants
By the numbers
The FY2020 990, line by line.
Download 990
| Line | Start FY20 | End FY20 |
|---|---|---|
| Cash and savingsLn 1–2 | $1.3M | $3.3M |
| Total assetsLn 16 | $1.8M | $3.8M |
| LiabilitiesLn 26 | $9K | $363K |
| Net assetsLn 32 | $1.8M | $3.4M |
| Line | Total | Programs | Management | Fundraising |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grants to domestic organizationsLn 1 | $43K | $43K | ||
| Pay of current officers, directors and key staffLn 5 | $224K | $112K | $67K | $45K |
| Other salaries and wagesLn 7 | $876K | $720K | $89K | $66K |
| Pension plan contributionsLn 8 | $56K | $24K | $31K | $1K |
| Other employee benefitsLn 9 | $121K | $98K | $11K | $12K |
| Payroll taxesLn 10 | $108K | $1K | $107K | $171 |
| Legal feesLn 11b | $20K | $20K | ||
| Accounting feesLn 11c | $6K | $5K | $493 | $539 |
| Professional fundraising feesLn 11e | $2K | $2K | ||
| Other fees for servicesLn 11g | $949K | $936K | $6K | $6K |
| Advertising and promotionLn 12 | $824K | $819K | $5K | |
| Office expensesLn 13 | $69K | $58K | $7K | $5K |
| Information technologyLn 14 | $39K | $31K | $4K | $4K |
| OccupancyLn 16 | $143K | $114K | $14K | $15K |
| TravelLn 17 | $11K | $11K | $13 | $219 |
| Conferences, conventions and meetingsLn 19 | $3K | $3K | ||
| InsuranceLn 23 | $7K | $4K | $2K | $515 |
| Other expenses (24a–d)Ln 24 | $86K | $67K | $14K | $5K |
| All other expensesLn 24e | $10K | $8K | $2K | $420 |
| Total functional expensesLn 25 | $3.6M | $3.1M | $355K | $168K |
Filing history
| Year | Money in | Money out | In minus out | Net assets | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2024 Latest | $9.3M | $8.0M | $1.3M | $4.8M | 990 PDF |
| FY2023 | $3.3M | $5.4M | −$2.1M | $3.6M | 990 PDF |
| FY2022 | $7.5M | $5.8M | $1.7M | $5.1M | 990 PDF |
| FY2021 | $3.4M | $3.5M | −$83K | $3.5M | 990 PDF |
| FY2020 Viewing | $5.2M | $3.6M | $1.6M | $3.4M | 990 PDF |
| FY2019 | $2.5M | $1.6M | $895K | $1.8M | 990 PDF |
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Schedules filed Part IV
See the full FY2020 990 (6 parts)
Part I · Summary $5,222,734 revenue, 12 lines filed
Part VI · Governance 10 of 11 board members independent, no flags
Part VIII · Statement of revenue $5,222,734 across 5 lines filed
Part IX · Statement of functional expenses $3,598,956 across 19 lines filed
Part X · Balance sheet $3,767,914 assets, 10 lines filed
Part XI · Reconciliation of net assets $3,404,910 net assets at year end
Form 990 e-file (XML) FY2020 from the IRS · Classification, formation year and address from the IRS Business Master File
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