Against The Stream Meditation Center

Legal name: Against The Stream Buddhist Meditation S

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
261351397
IRS 990 coverage
2015–2015
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2015
Location
Venice, CA, United States
Phone
3236654300
Rating
69
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Buddhism
Affiliation
Buddhism

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,319,745
Expenses
$1,147,282
Assets
$400,066
Liabilities
$1

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2015. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Denise DiNovi (President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Noah Levine (Director): $138,576 total reported compensation
  • Mary Stancavage (Director): $55,000 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2015. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Against the Stream was founded to make the teachings of Buddha available to all who are interested. In 2007 he founded the Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society. In 2008 he developed and implemented a Buddhist based addiction treatment program called Refuge Recovery, which is now flourishing around the world. These days Noah is primarily engaged in teaching Dharma in classes, workshops and retreats, training new Dharma teachers and spending time with his two young children. BlackBackground_xl.jpg. BlackBackground_xl.jpg Against The Stream.

What it reported doing in 2015

2015 is in the books and all we can say is "What a year!" Our SF Center opened in April and has quickly become a dharma hub in the Bay Area. Our 2 centers in LA continue to provide a variety of weekly classes, daylongs, series and year-long programs. Thousands of people come through our doors each month, and countless others are part of our virtual community connected through retreats, podcasts and social medial. In October, 12 teachers graduated from our most recent ATS Teacher Training program and are in LA, SF, NY, Boston and other places int he US and Europe sharing the dharma with all who are interested. We started advanced Facilitator Training and a Mentor Training program. We received a $15,000 Hemera Foundation Grant which provided fellowships to our retreats for teachers and others working in K-12 schools. We're proud to announce that we're the recipient of this grant again for 2016. We also received a very generous donation which allowed us to offer scholarships to whomever needed one for our 2015 retreats. The Details: 1)39 weekly classes or sitting groups in all our locations (31 in LA and 8 in SF) 2)37 special class series and daylongs (26 in LA & 11 in SF) 3)180 received scholarship support (12% or all attendees) 4)24 dana-only classes and events (19 in LA & 5 in SF) 5)2269 attended all special series and daylongs (1484 in LA & 785 in SF) 6)We have a Spanish meditation class in SF. 7)About 2800 people come through our doors each month (1,900 in LA and 900 in SF). 8)We had 6 retreats on 2 coasts (over 24% of 455 total retreat attendees received scholarship support).

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 83% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
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

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 86
  • Transparency & Controls: 100
  • Accountability: 12
  • Sustainability: 53
  • Growth: NotEnoughData

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 83.2%; rating input score 83
  • Program expense ratio: 95%; rating input score 95
  • Fundraising efficiency: $27.76 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 0%; rating input score 0; 4th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 2 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 29
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 13.1%; rating input score 75; 75th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.35; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 90; 90th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 16.9%; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: Limited
  • Asset growth: Limited

Details

  • What they do: 1 operating location identified
  • Where the money goes: 83.2% of revenue deployed · 95% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 0 of 6 board members independent · 2 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.1M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $139K · 5 people listed
  • Consistency: 16 of 16 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
  • 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.

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

  • High — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 0/100.
  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 6 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 19/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 17/100.
  • High — Grant Readiness: California registration: this organization is recorded as not currently operating in California.