The state of Maryland has awarded $6.1 million in taxpayer funds to We Our Us, a Baltimore-based nonprofit focused on youth engagement, despite the organization’s failure to file required federal tax forms for 2023 and 2024. The contract, approved in August by Gov. Wes Moore and administered through the Department of Juvenile Services, aims to support justice-involved youth under the city’s Group Violence Reduction Strategy. Officials have not detailed how they verified the group’s financial readiness for such a sum, prompting questions from nonprofit experts about oversight in state grant processes.
The five-year agreement, effective Sept. 1, 2024, through June 30, 2030, carries no disbursements to date, according to department statements. Moore highlighted the funding during a public exchange with President Donald Trump over urban safety measures, positioning it as evidence of collaborative progress in Baltimore. “Partnership produced progress, and there’s no better case study than Baltimore,” Moore said at the time.
We Our Us, formally We Our Us Unity Engagement Mens Movement Inc., last submitted an IRS Form 990-EZ in November 2023, covering its 2022 fiscal year. That filing reported $328,000 in revenue, no paid staff and a volunteer board, with over 60 percent of expenses categorized vaguely as “other” without specifics. The group’s website outlines services such as mentoring young men and mediating conflicts, but it provided no response to inquiries about current operations or delayed filings.
Nonprofit accounting specialists raised red flags over the award’s scale relative to the organization’s documented capacity. Brian Mittendorf, an Ohio State University professor specializing in nonprofit finances, noted the compliance lapse as a fundamental issue. “At the bare minimum, being up to date in compliance is necessary for receiving government funding for grants in general,” Mittendorf said. He added that public records show no evidence of infrastructure to manage multimillion-dollar resources effectively.
Erica Harris, a Florida State University expert on nonprofit transparency, emphasized the exchange principle for tax-exempt status. “They’re not paying into our tax system, and so in exchange for that, they’re meant to give us information about how they’ve used our money,” Harris said. “With the absence of a nonprofit tax return, we have no idea what you’re doing with our money.”
State agencies offered limited clarification on vetting procedures. Moore’s office directed questions to the Department of Juvenile Services, which in turn pointed to the Interagency Rate Council for rate-setting details. The council did not respond. A department spokesman affirmed a “transparent process” involving public expressions of interest and Board of Public Works approval but confirmed no funds have been billed or released yet.
Maryland’s nonprofit landscape amplifies these concerns. The state does not centrally track total taxpayer allocations to nonprofits, a gap acknowledged by budget officials in July 2025. “Many nonprofits receive funds directly from agency grant programs, and we don’t track that centrally,” said Raquel Coombs, chief of staff for the Department of Budget and Management, during legislative testimony. Auditors from the state Office of Legislative Audits recommended in September 2025 that agencies adopt a unified grant management system to monitor awards and expenditures, citing risks of inconsistent oversight.
Under federal law, nonprofits must file Form 990 annually by the 15th day of the fifth month after their fiscal year-end, detailing revenues, expenses and governance. Maryland requires annual charitable organization registrations with the Secretary of State, including financial summaries; We Our Us’ status appears as “not current,” with 2022 data showing $17,407 in contributions, $4,469 on programs and $33,211 on management. Noncompliance can lead to penalties, though enforcement varies.
This case fits a pattern in Baltimore, where 81 nonprofits — nearly 10 percent of registrants — remain financially delinquent with the state as of October 2025. Separately, the city pledged $1 million from its Walgreens opioid settlement to We Our Us last year, but a mayoral spokesman said the agreement awaits final Board of Estimates approval, with no funds disbursed. “The grant agreement will provide fiscal and programmatic oversight of grantees,” the spokesman stated. Mayor Brandon Scott’s office integrated the group into the Group Violence Reduction Strategy, a data-driven initiative launched in 2022 to curb shootings through interventions with at-risk individuals.
Broader state efforts underscore the stakes. In August 2025, the Board of Public Works allocated $15 million to various nonprofits for violence prevention amid Baltimore’s ongoing crime challenges, drawing criticism for limited accountability measures. Legislative leaders have fielded calls for yes-or-no commitments to transparency reforms, yet top Democrats including Moore, Senate President Bill Ferguson and House Speaker Adrienne Jones have not publicly affirmed such pledges.
For Maryland residents, these arrangements highlight tensions in public-private partnerships. Nonprofits handle billions in state funds yearly for services from education to health, yet fragmented tracking leaves taxpayers without a clear ledger. The Department of Juvenile Services, which oversees youth justice programs statewide, emphasized its reliance on established protocols, but experts like Mittendorf argue for stricter pre-award audits. “From the public records, we don’t see any indication that it’s got a track record, that it has an infrastructure in place to use this level of resources,” he said. Harris concurred: “It would be a stretch for that size of an organization set up in that way to be able to use and disperse and really make the best use of a $6 million dollar grant.”
As the contract advances, the Interagency Rate Council — comprising representatives from multiple agencies — will monitor rates, but billing approvals remain pending. We Our Us’ role in the violence reduction strategy involves community mediators targeting high-risk zones, aligning with Baltimore’s 20 percent drop in homicides since 2023. Still, without updated filings, questions persist on scalability. The Maryland Secretary of State’s database, updated quarterly, flags delinquent entities for potential dissolution if unresolved.
Statewide, nonprofit funding supports diverse needs, from Southern Maryland’s environmental groups to Eastern Shore food banks, but uniform standards could prevent lapses. A July 2025 think tank report called the current structure “hard to track,” urging centralized databases for grant flows. Until implemented, awards like this one test public trust in fiscal stewardship.
