2024-06-05T12:54:41-05:00 2023-12-31 990EZ 2023-01-01 934821521 Columbia Gorge Defenders % Richard H Balsley COLU 5413861661 116 Oak Street Ste 8 Hood River OR 97031 RICHARD H BALSLEY Executive Director 5413861661 2024-06-05 RICHARD BALSLEY 999009999 false 0 AAL2 IAL1 2023 2023-04-26 12:10:37Z X X X www.gorgefirm.org X X 75500 75500 75500 75500 75500 0 75500 0 0 0 0 0 75500 0 0 0 75500 To provide quality legal defense to court appointed ind Columbia Gorge Defenders provided constitutionally and statutorily mandated legal services to both children and adults in five Oregon counties in both criminal and juvenile matters in over 1000 cases QUINN OPPENHEIM President 0.000 0 0 0 ARIEL BEVIER Treasurer 0.000 0 0 0 NANCY RIMMER Secretary 0.000 0 0 0 CERYS ST JOHN RICHTER Director 0.000 0 0 0 JONAS BEDNAREK Director 0.000 0 0 0 SCOTT F BROWN Director 0.000 0 0 0 RICHARD H BALSLEY Executive Director 0.000 0 0 0 false false false false false false false 0 0 0 false false OR JESSICA S GARCIA PARROTT 116 Oak Street Ste 8 Hood River OR 97031 5413861661 false false false false false false false false false false false false NONE NONE true X 75500 75500 75500 75500 73990 1510 75500 X 0.00000 Part II, line 11 Columbia Gorge Defenders was incorporated to take over from its Part II, line 11 predecessor organization, Morris & Sullivan PC, as the primary Part II, line 11 public defense contractor in the Columbia River Gorge. Our Part II, line 11 predecessor organization was the primary indigent defense Part II, line 11 contractor in the region. The State of Oregon changed the law Part II, line 11 regarding indigent defense contracts, making it impossible for Part II, line 11 the predecessor organization to continue with our mission of Part II, line 11 indigent defense without reorganization as a non-profit Part II, line 11 corporation. Additionally, as a for-profit public defender Part II, line 11 organization, we were unable to offer employment that qualified Part II, line 11 for PSLF. This put us at a disadvantage when recruiting young Part II, line 11 lawyers. By re-creating our firm as a non-profit, we are able Part II, line 11 to continue to provide indigent defense services in our region Part II, line 11 and we are better able to recruit new staff. We amended our Part II, line 11 contract with the State of Oregon to recognize that our state Part II, line 11 contract was being transferred to the non-profit organization on Part II, line 11 1/1/2024. Due to the State's budgenting and payments cycle, Part II, line 11 contract checks are only issued once per month, in the last week Part II, line 11 of the month. In order to avoid any service disruption, the Part II, line 11 predecessor organization donated funds to the non-profit to allow Part II, line 11 it to carry on operations financially until payments under the Part II, line 11 new contract began. That contribution represents the entirety Part II, line 11 of our financial support for the year 2023. Beginning in January Part II, line 11 2024, nearly all of our financial support comes from our contract Part II, line 11 with the governmental entity of the State of Oregon to provide Part II, line 11 services related solely to our public mission of providing Part II, line 11 quality legal defense to court appointed adults and children. RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED Columbia Gorge Defenderss initial short tax year was 2023 and due to numerous tasks involved in establishing the new organization as a separate entity from its founding forprofit organization and the inability of the founding organizations existing CPA to take on the burden of a new organization that is in the midst of obtaining 501c3 status with the IRS the organization was left unassisted by a CPA This led to a late filing of the extension request and of the form itself as soon as we became aware that we had not completed either in a timely manner The organization is attempting to engage new counsel to prepare its annual Form 990s going forward and will file on time in all future tax years