A Host of People Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
463492862
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2021, Form 990-N 2018
Location
Detroit, MI, USA
Phone
3136497632
Rating
52
Verdict
MIXED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Theater

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$181,864
Expenses
$173,346
Assets
$84,749
Liabilities
$0

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

6 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • John Del Gaudio (President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Sherrine Azab (Treasurer): $37,440 total reported compensation
  • Jacob Hooker (Secretary): $10,710 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

A Host of People is a multi-racial Detroit-based ensemble theater company creating original work that celebrates imagination, complexity, and the synthesis of seemingly disparate elements - at once epic and intimate, political and personal, poetic and approachable. A Host of People exists to create aesthetically rigorous, intellectually challenging theater that is warm, welcoming, and inspiring to people from all walks of life. We choose our subject matter and themes carefully with an eye to stories, topics, and aesthetic approaches that will be equally thrilling to the most adventurous theater fans as well as those with less exposure to the form. This is how A Host of People moves people: we play with the light and the dark the head and the heart.

What it reported doing in 2025

In 2025, A Host of People continued to expand its creative and community-centered programming while laying groundwork for future growth. The company premiered a new original work by the La Carpa Teen Ensemble, Brilla! Glow! The Awakening of the Alebrijes in Me, a bilingual performance exploring identity, imagination, and cultural inheritance. The ensemble also continued development of Good Ancestors: Shining Cities, a table top theater piece that invites the audience to imagine our cities as beacons of sustainability in order to save our collective future. In parallel, the company began development on Memory Generation, a new performance created in partnership with New Yorkbased company Pink Fang that centers the experiences of people living with memory loss and their caregivers. Throughout the year, A Host of People also deepened our connections and support for our local and national colleagues and community. The company supported visiting productions and welcomed Team Sunshine Performance Corporation from Philadelphia for a presentation of Your Optimism Is Not Required. In addition to artistic programming, the organization announced plans for a new community arts venue that will open to the public in 2027, celebrating the milestone with a community gathering at the BIG TENT SPACE PARTY. Staff and artists also participated in local and national gatherings, including the National Performance Network Annual Conference, strengthening relationships and contributing to national conversations about performance for social change.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 94% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 36
  • Transparency & Controls: 84
  • Accountability: 44
  • Sustainability: 39
  • Growth: 40

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 28.9%; rating input score 29
  • Program expense ratio: 30.3%; rating input score 30
  • Fundraising efficiency: $201.59 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 90; 90th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 90%; rating input score 90; 10th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 66.7%; rating input score 67; 21st percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 1 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 12
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 4.7%; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.49; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 27.8%; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -30.4% per year; rating input score 0; 4th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 1.3% per year; rating input score 100; 26th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -5.5% per year; rating input score 0; 9th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 28.9% of revenue deployed · 30.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 4 of 6 board members independent · 1 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $53K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $37K · 6 people listed
  • Consistency: 25 of 26 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 6 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 29/100.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 30/100.
  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 6 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 46/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 24/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 12/100.