2018-01-30T13:12:45-08:00 2017-09-30 SCHALL & ASHENFARB CPAS 307 5th Ave 15th Floor NEW YORK NY 100166517 990 2016-10-01 133910567 Legal Information for Families Today LEGA 6466139633 32 Court Street Suite 1208 Brooklyn NY 11201 Cathy Cramer CEO 2018-01-30 true Michael Schall P02024184 2122682800 2016 2021-01-29 14:40:06Z Cathy Cramer 32 Court Street Suite 1208 Brooklyn NY 11201 2106392 false false X www.LIFTonline.org X 1996 NY Provide legal information & community education & promote reform of the courts and public agencies. 19 19 28 9 0 1629216 2037574 0 103 102 5270 1629319 2042946 0 0 1264471 1305592 0 265590 415139 506851 1679610 1812443 -50291 230503 1011665 1229808 91625 79265 920040 1150543 X Legal Information for Families Today (LIFT) is an award winning non-profit dedicated to empowering unrepresented litigants so that they may successfully self-advocate in the New York Family Courts. false false 563508 Family Legal Center: LIFT continues the Family Legal Center (FLC) to enable unrepresented litigants to work with our staff over a period of weeks or months. Through this program, LIFT provides in-depth ongoing support to litigants proceeding without a lawyer in child support, custody and visitation cases. LIFT operates the FLC at the Family Courts in all five boroughs. Each FLC participants is teamed with a legal program staff member, and each session usually takes between 45 minutes and one hour. In FY17, the FLC worked with over 1,200 participants. Throughout FY17, LIFT prepared an expansion of our legal services which included legal advice and a new pro bono program. These expanded services were launched in early 2018. 337311 Family Law Information Helplines: Anyone with a New York Family Law matter may access LIFTs services through our Telephone, Email and Live-Chat Helplines. Importantly, every EI Site participant is referred to the Helplines, which are tremendously valuable resources for obtaining answers to follow-up questions, additional information, referrals and more. Bilingual (Spanish/English) Helpline Associates provide information regarding family law as well as referrals to community-based legal and social services. In FY17, our Helplines served over 14,500 people. 186091 Social Services and Know-Your-Rights Workshops: The vast majority of the families LIFT serves are proceeding without counsel in Family Court to address child support, custody, or visitation matters. LIFT also provides social service support to ensure that these participants have access to social services, public benefits, and opportunities to build parenting skills. With this service, we address a variety of issues that may co-exist with family law matters. For a large percentage of the participants in LIFTs Parenting Course, their enrollment in the course has been mandated, either by the Family Court or by the New York City Administration for Childrens Services. Accordingly, LIFTs parenting curriculum aligns with the Courts requirements. Thus, participants are often able to use what they have learned in the course to achieve their goals. The skills obtained and evidence of their participation by way of a certificate of completion may be taken into favorable consideration by the Court when resolving legal matters. Additionally, LIFT provides Know-Your-Rights workshops in communities around NYC to share information about family court/family law and LIFTs services. 308793 1395703 true true false false false false false false false false true false false false false true true false false false false false false false true false false false false true false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false true 15 0 true 28 true false false false false false false true true false 0 false false false false false false false false false false X 19 19 false false false false false false false true true false false true true true true true true true false false NY X X Ben Pongsanarakul 6466139633 32 Court Street Suite 1208 Brooklyn NY 11201 William C Silverman Esq Chair 1.00 0.00 X X 0 0 0 Roy Haynes Jr Vice Chair 1.00 0.00 X X 0 0 0 Glenn R Pollner Esq Treasurer 1.00 0.00 X X 0 0 0 Phillip H Cohen Secretary 1.00 0.00 X X 0 0 0 Leslie Abbey Esq Director 1.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Liberty Aldrich Esq Director 1.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Ellie Becker Director 1.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Sara M DiLeo Esq Director 1.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Frances J DiSarro Director 1.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Corey Chambliss Director 1.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Joshua C Empson Director 1.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Karen A Greenstein Director 1.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Gabriella Nawi Director 1.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Anupam Ladha Director 1.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Anthony D Schlesinger Director 1.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Rebecca J Simmons Esq Director 1.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Sheri Sandler Director 1.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Robert Schiffer Director 1.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Susan R Kramer Director 1.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Linda A Fuller Director 1.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Stephen McGrath Director 1.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Thomas W Ostrander Director 1.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Sharon Myrie CEO thru Jan 17 35.00 0.00 X 178564 0 33848 Cathy Cramer CEO from Feb 17 35.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 178564 33848 1 false true false 0 344594 1412452 280528 2037574 0 102 102 0 0 0 0 63446 344594 63446 0 0 0 Other Income 900099 5270 5270 5270 2042946 5372 X 0 0 0 0 189135 160764 9457 18914 0 845594 731640 36858 77096 42360 36533 1896 3931 156373 134864 7000 14509 72130 62208 3229 6693 0 0 17884 17884 0 0 0 214994 68316 62224 84454 0 10383 8955 465 963 0 0 118040 101804 5283 10953 4671 4028 209 434 0 2130 979 956 195 0 0 8875 7655 396 824 13575 11708 607 1260 Special Event Expense 40162 40162 Telephone and Communications 21253 18330 951 1972 Dues and Subscriptions 11626 10028 520 1078 Equipment Rental 10778 9296 482 1000 32480 28595 2733 1152 1812443 1395703 151150 265590 466878 588493 159619 159722 299060 370634 0 0 0 0 0 50474 83657 189669 180999 17545 8670 0 0 0 0 18089 18632 1011665 1229808 91625 79265 91625 79265 X 872664 1120543 47376 30000 920040 1150543 1011665 1229808 230503 X false true X true false X 1180085 1596051 1624628 1629216 2037574 8067554 0 0 1180085 1596051 1624628 1629216 2037574 8067554 259000 7808554 370 255 221 103 102 1051 0 450461 680 5270 456411 8525016 0.91600 0.83760 X RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED 19910 16779 3131 134833 129294 5539 34926 34926 8670 X 2086434 43488 43488 2042946 2042946 1855931 43488 43488 1812443 1812443 Part X : FIN48 Footnote LIFT does not believe its financial statements include any material, uncertain tax positions. Tax filings for period ending September 30, 2014 and later are subject to examination by applicable taxing authorities. false Gala 408040 344594 63446 63446 408040 344594 63446 63446 63446 X X X false false false false false false false false false false Sharon Myrie CEO thru Jan 17 178564 33848 212412 Form 990, Part III, Line 4d: Other Program Services Description OTHER PROGRAM SERVICES 4: Legal Resource Guides: LIFTs 40 original, multilingual Legal Resource Guides are unique publications, available at all programs and on our website. They cover a wide range of family law issues, including: procedural topics, such as how to begin a case, and detailed information on a litigants rights and possible remedies in the array of case-types. Guides are available in eight languages: English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Korean, French, Haitian/Creole, and Hebrew. In addition, the Guides are written at a fifth grade level in an easy-to-understand Q&A format. They are often a litigants first exposure to the information provided, and quickly become crucial to the litigants ability to proceed effectively without representation. In FY17 we distributed over 80,000 copies of our Guides. OTHER PROGRAM SERVICES 5: Education & Information Sites: Located inside Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island Family Courthouses, the EI Sites provide quick answers to family law questions, as well as assistance navigating the courthouse, starting court cases, and accessing court resources. When feasible, the Site Coordinators are bilingual (Spanish/English). We work with hundreds of people each day at the Sites, which are often a litigants introduction to LIFT. They are a key source of support and otherwise unavailable legal information, and serve as a gateway to our other holistic services. Throughout LIFTs history, the EI Sites have been our flagship program. In FY17, the EI Sites served over 14,000 people. Form 990, Part VI, Line 11b: Form 990 Review Process Management reviewed a draft of the form 990 with the audit/finance committee and provided edits to the tax preparer. After this process was performed, the form 990 was sent to the full board of directors prior to being filed with the IRS. Form 990, Part VI, Line 12c: Explanation of Monitoring and Enforcement of Conflicts The organization has a "board approved" conflicts of interest policy. Each board member must fill out an annual declaration stating they had no conflicts or identifying the nature of their interested party transactions. Form 990, Part VI, Line 15a: Compensation Review & Approval Process - CEO, Top Management Each year, the executive committee reviews comparable salaries based on a recognized study and reviews the performance of the executive director to determine if the existing salary falls within these ranges. After a deliberation of this matter, a new proposed salary and benefit package is voted on. The minutes of the board of directors reflect the nature of this process. Form 990, Part VI, Line 19: Other Organization Documents Publicly Available Documents are made available upon request.