2014-11-05T13:49:50-06:00 2013-12-31 640897081 Matthews Cutrer & Lindsay PA 599 C Steed Rd Ridgeland MS 39157 990 2013-01-01 134203234 Mississippi Center for Justice MISS 6013522269 PO Box 1023 Jackson MS 392151023 Monica Galloway Operations Director 6013522269 2014-11-05 1 Charles R Lindsay Jr CPA P00294610 6018988875 2014-10-06 2013 2015-11-30 17:44:51Z Monica Galloway PO Box 1023 Jackson MS 392151023 4865819 0 X www.mscenterforjustice.org X 2002 MS To advance racial and economic justice and develop strategies to combat discrimination and poverty. 13 13 37 107 0 0 3264006 4363047 140703 382823 236 1292 541 4 3405486 4747166 0 0 0 0 2503288 2828057 50400 54000 155672 1230298 1182352 3783986 4064409 -378500 682757 3070758 3786312 230178 262973 2840580 3523339 X Mississippi Center for Justice is a nonprofit, public interest law firm committed to advancing racial and economic justice. Supported and staffed by attorneys and other professionals, the Center develops and pursues strategies to combat discrimination and poverty statewide. 0 0 3710966 382827 The Center's workplace-based fair lending initiative, the New Roots Credit Partnership (NRCP), was launched in early 2013 to provide a low-cost, non-predatory small dollar loan alternative to payday lenders as well as financial literacy training. Working with local financial institutions, the Center's Paheadra Robinson brokered NRCP partnerships of various types with public employers including a public school district, a public housing authority, and the City of Jackson. By the end of the year, the eligible employee base for these programs exceeded 2,400. Fair lending legislative advocacy yielded mixed results, as an effort led by faith groups in which the Center participated managed to block interest rate hikes but failed to block removal of the repealer of the payday loan law itself.In May, 2013, at a press conference, Center attorney Marni von Wilpert joined by representatives of the University Medical Center and the Jackson Medical Mall Foundation, announced the formation of a medical-legal partnership to address legal needs of HIV/AIDS patients, a first-of-its-kind initiative in the state. The Center staffed an office next door to the Crossroads Clinic at the Medical Mall for easy referrals. Center staff and pro bono counsel have assisted clients with various forms of discrimination, including a housing case against a Jackson area transitional shelter for women and a federal court employment discrimination case against a Hattiesburg restaurant.The Center participated in a coalition to support the effort to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The issue was stymied during the regular legislative session, and was resolved against expansion at a special session. Health law director Linda Rigsby, along with community organizer Meigan Thompson, extensively reached out to the public on the importance of the federal health care exchange. One by-product was a promotional music video about the ACA performed by four Delta teenagers that attracted nearly 9,000 views after it was publicized by the White House Office of Public Engagement. In May, 2013, after 2 years of advocacy by Center managing director Reilly Morse, U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the state of Mississippi agreed to add $40 million more to a landmark $132 million disaster housing settlement. This will fund repairs to up to 1,400 more households with Hurricane Katrina damage. This brings the total settlement to $172 million and the total households helped to over 5,500. In direct service, the Center provided free title clearing assistance to dozens more households, or over 100 since the program began. The Center also provided free representation to cottage owners and contractor fraud victims. In early 2013, Center staff continued to provide legal and strategic advice to legal service organizations mobilizing to respond to Superstorm Sandy.The Center's amicus brief in support of affordable housing developers was successful in persuading the Mississippi Supreme Court to support the non-taxation of low income housing tax credits as part of the assessed value, one of Mississippi's only state-law affordable housing incentives. The legislature again failed to take up the Affordable Housing Trust Fund law, which a coalition led by the Center has supported. Meanwhile, HUD awarded the Center a fair housing enforcement grant late in the year, and the staff led by John Jopling mobilized for this work.The Center participated in national and state platforms on law and poverty. Center President Martha Bergmark served on and helped to plan events for the ABA Commission on Homelessness and Poverty, including how to respond to housing needs of Superstorm Sandy victims, where she was joined by Reilly Morse and other legal aid providers. Bergmark, Morse, and von Wilpert also participated in panels on Poverty and Access to Justice at the University of Mississippi. Other Center staff participated in poverty and racial justice trainings in collaboration with the Shriver Center (Chicago) and the Kellogg Foundation's America Healing Initiative.Over 210 education discipline and special needs disputes across the Mississippi Delta and south Mississippi in the first half of 2013 were addressed by the Center's education opportunities staff led by Kimberly Merchant. In the second half of the year, another 40 cases were opened. The work served to end racial discrimination in public school discipline, to interrupt the school-to-prison pipeline, and to ensure compliance with requirements for students with disabilities. These cases include advice and counsel as well as free legal representation at school board hearings, due process hearings, and chancery court proceedings. The Center has enjoyed considerable success in these direct service cases.In other education work, the Center has cases pending against school districts, including one over the unitary status of the Drew School District and one over the closure of the historic Nichols Elementary School. In these cases, the common issue is racial discrimination. The Center, with support from pro bono counsel, is evaluating legal strategies to achieve public school funding parity statewide. Center president Martha Bergmark discussed Mississippi's segregation legacy on an edition of Education Nation hosted by MSNBC's Melissa Harris Perry.At the Foreclosure Prevention Initiative, funded by the National Foreclosure Settlement, the Center's staff have handled 216 cases in the first half of the year to defend foreclosures and arrange workout agreements where possible. In the second half of the year, the Center took in another 100 cases. All representation is free to the client.In the realm of consumer protection for higher education, the Center settled on confidential terms a case against a for-profit college for failure to properly educate and train students as advertised. In legislative work, the Center helped to pass state law requirements on for-profit school accreditation and qualifications standards. In the regulatory arena, consumer protection attorney Whitney Barkley served on two national negotiated rule making teams at the U.S. Department of Education to strengthen performance and fair lending requirements for the for-profit school industry. Also, the Center published a white paper on how veterans using GI Bill benefits are targeted by for-profit schools.In community development and engagement, the Center's representation of the Port Campaign Coalition forced the release of a state legislative watchdog report, pressured HUD and EPA into greater oversight, and provided content for "Above Board" a documentary on the 3 year long campaign for jobs and environmental justice at the Port of Gulfport. At the grassroots level, the Center's Indianola and Biloxi offices were selected by the Kellogg Foundation as anchor organizations to convene local coalitions to address community-wide issues affecting children. A separate project focusing on black teenage boys was launched in Indianola and has reached into the lives of a dozen at risk Sunflower County youth. Finally, the Center brought to a close its 3 year long participation in a HUD-funded Sustainable Communities regional planning effort in which Morse and policy analyst Matt Williams participated heavily in preparation of a detailed Fair Housing Equity Analysis for the three coastal counties.In other disaster civil legal aid, the Center continued to manage the 4-state Gulf Justice Consortium through which lower-income victims of the BP oil spill with economic losses could access free legal assistance in submitting claims to the class action settlement administrator. As of October, the total claims handled were 1,224 of which 444 were still open and pending, and the recovery for 2013 was $508,492. 3710966 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 26 0 1 37 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 X 13 13 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 MS X Monica Galloway 6013522269 5 Old River Place Suite 203 Jackson MS 39202 Judith Lichtman Board Member 1.00 X 0 0 0 David Lipman Board Member 1.00 X 0 0 0 La'Verne Edney Chair 1.00 X X 0 0 0 Walter Boone Board Member 1.00 X 0 0 0 Victor McTeer Board Member 1.00 X 0 0 0 Stacy Ferraro Secretary 1.00 X X 0 0 0 Bill Ray Board Member 1.00 X 0 0 0 Roberta Avila Treasurer 1.00 X X 0 0 0 George Riley Board Member 1.00 X 0 0 0 Jeffrey Webster Board Member 1.00 X 0 0 0 Doressia Hutton Vice Chair 1.00 X X 0 0 0 Gordon Greenwood Board Member 1.00 X 0 0 0 Monica Galloway Operations Director 40.00 X 122917 0 12556 Joseph Reilly Morse President/CEO 40.00 X 136500 0 13209 Beth Orlanksy Key Employee 40.00 X 126562 0 8236 John Jopling Highest Compensated Employee 40.00 X 125500 0 12711 Martha J Bergmark Former President 40.00 X 175000 0 24147 686479 0 70859 5 1 1 0 Berlin Rosen Ltd 15 Maiden Lane Suite 1600 New York NY 10038 Public Affairs/Communications Consulting 101180 1 553704 3809343 6759 4363047 Contractual Services 900099 382823 382823 382823 1292 1292 118653 553704 118653 0 Miscellaneous 900099 4 4 4 4747166 382827 0 1292 686479 624696 27459 34324 1672865 1567476 79784 25605 134735 125189 6124 3422 158120 146914 7187 4019 175858 163397 7994 4467 18525 18525 5488 5488 54000 54000 247993 243223 842 3928 227581 211046 10325 6210 47163 41052 1565 4546 208394 194123 9156 5115 109475 99948 1774 7753 2000 2000 63657 59147 2894 1616 Advocacy Costs 181555 181519 23 13 Miscellaneous 43698 23030 20428 240 Professional Developmen 25706 24718 574 414 Bad Debt 1117 1117 4064409 3710966 197771 155672 1627853 1641250 877702 1607850 10010 36378 16424 18701 650904 178194 529696 472710 9073 9423 3070758 3786312 130178 162973 100000 100000 230178 262973 X 1092040 1299935 1748540 2223404 2840580 3523339 3070758 3786312 X 682757 2 X X 0 1 X 1 0 X 2431131 2105809 4690615 3349507 4474942 17052004 2431131 2105809 4690615 3349507 4474942 17052004 17052004 3390 260 2375 236 1292 7553 13569 3379 37886 541 4 55379 17114936 985681 0.99630 0.99490 X RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED 5488 5488 4058921 4064409 353220 88305 0 0 274577 279668 339199 353220 1246664 1869996 13200 32309 3089 5488 54086 68644 69917 84800 88305 311666 467499 345882 17481 328401 48654 23495 25159 256368 137218 119150 472710 5770654 904835 118653 1023488 4747166 0 4747166 5087897 904835 118653 1023488 4064409 0 4064409 Part XI, Line 2d - Other Adjustments: Fundraising Events (shown net of expenses) 118,653. Part XII, Line 2d - Other Adjustments: Fundraising Events (shown net of expenses) 118,653. X X X X X X X 1 Norman Rosenberg 3101 19th Street NW Washington DC 20010 Development Consultant 0 672356 118653 553703 672356 118653 553703 MS Champion of Justice Dinner 443358 374853 68505 34408 8454 25643 MS on the Potomac 215200 191967 23233 15905 7327 2 13798 -13117 26915 6735 6418 13763 672356 553703 118653 57048 14872 46733 118653 0 X 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Martha J Bergmark Former President 175000 0 0 0 0 0 10500 0 13647 0 199147 0 0 0 Part I, Line 1a Martha Bergmark receives a housing allowance of $11,351. Form 990, Part VI, Section B, line 11 A draft of the Form 990 is sent to the President and Audit Committee. The Form 990 is reviewed and any questions that arise from the President or Audit Committee are answered/cleared prior to the filing of the return. Form 990, Part VI, Section B, line 12c The Audit Committee circulates the conflict of interest statement annually to each board member for their signatures and disclosure of any existing conflicts. The board monitors the policy by placing these issues on the agenda for discussion at its annual meeting and by requesting that the board members review and sign the copy of the statement anually. Form 990, Part VI, Section B, line 15 The Audit Committee's review of compensation occurs as part of the budget-setting process at the annual meeting. The board reviews compensation of other same-size organizations and the survey that is provided by the MS Center for Nonprofits to insure that compensation is reasonable. Form 990, Part VI, Section C, line 19 The organization makes its financial statments available on its website. They also have their governing documents, conflict of interest policy and financial statements available to the general public upon request. Form 990, Part XI, line 9: Rounding 2. Part XII Line 2-Committee Oversight of the Audited Financial Statements: The auditor meets with the Board of Directors making a full presentation at the completion of the audit for the year answering any of the Audit Committee's questions. The auditor works closely with the Audit Committee during the year should any concerns arise.