Minnesota · Nonprofit
The Advocates For Human Rights
The Advocates For Human Rights (Minnesota) receives grants from 85 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,536,244 to it, the largest being IMMIGRANT LAW CENTER OF MINNESOTA INC ($675,273). 60 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.8M
- Funders on record
- 85
- Grants received
- $8.5M
- Net assets
- $4.0M
What The Advocates For Human Rights does
Mission
To promote and protect human rights in the United States and around the world.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Migrants Human Rights: The Advocates mobilized 845 pro bono legal professionals to provide free immigration legal services to people fleeing persecution or torture, unaccompanied children, trafficking survivors, and people in detention in FY25. In FY25, we delivered legal assistance in approximately 3,000 cases to people living throughout the Upper Midwest.
$1,765,630 spent$612,412 earned by the program43% of program spendingInternational Justice: The Advocates promotes international human rights by partnering with human rights defenders, coalitions, and affected communities to abolish the death penalty and protect the rights of LGBTIQ people, women, migrants, and others facing violence and discrimination. Engaging more than 350 volunteers, The Advocates documents violations, amplifies the voices of human rights defenders, and leverages international human rights mechanisms to influence local change. In FY25, The Advocates collaborated with 54 human rights partners in 51 countries to strengthen protections and drive legal reform.
$707,819 spent17% of program spendingResearch, Education, & Advocacy: The Advocates engages volunteers through the Immigration Court Observation Project to monitor hearings, expose systemic rights violations, and press for reform, with more than 1,400 participants since 2017. The Advocates also advances policy change to align U.S. federal, state, and local laws with international human rights standards. The Advocates combats sex and labor trafficking by addressing the root causes of trafficking, prioritizing survivor protection and agency, and reforming law, policies, and systems.
$664,893 spent16% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$641,595 spent16% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$284,788 spent7% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,064,725.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $3.2M to $4.5M (+39%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2021 8% · 2022 9% · 2023 13% · 2024 40% · 2025 25%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
84% of The Advocates For Human Rights’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (97% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Michele McKenzie
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2024 and FY2025 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 16 funders to 45 funders, grant income rose $383k → $1.5M.
21 of 85 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 42% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of The Advocates For Human Rights’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 85 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
The Advocates For Human Rights has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 8% of grant income, and it takes 9 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 9 funders to its left
70% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund The Advocates For Human Rights.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 26% · 2018 30% · 2019 27% · 2020 12% · 2021 12% · 2022 14% · 2023 21% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
52% of The Advocates For Human Rights's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 71% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
77% of The Advocates For Human Rights's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
The Advocates For Human Rights runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 798 international nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 798 international nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like The Advocates For Human Rights
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
89% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
87%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for The Advocates For Human Rights: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds The Advocates For Human Rights?
- The Advocates For Human Rights (Minnesota) receives grants from 85 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,536,244 to it, the largest being IMMIGRANT LAW CENTER OF MINNESOTA INC ($675,273). 60 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The Advocates For Human Rights have?
- IRS filings report 85 organizations giving $8,536,244 in grants to The Advocates For Human Rights, 60 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Advocates For Human Rights?
- IMMIGRANT LAW CENTER OF MINNESOTA INC is the largest funder on record, with $675,273 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Advocates For Human Rights find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 85 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing