American Physical Society
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 131656610
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Location
- College Park, MD, USA
- Phone
- 3012093210
- Rating
- 86
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Standard
- Sector
- Professional Societies, Associations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $106,332,062
- Expenses
- $90,947,319
- Assets
- $313,014,241
- Liabilities
- $33,931,660
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
29 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- BRAD MARSTON (VICE PRESIDENT (as of 1/24))
- JOHN DOYLE (PRESIDENT-ELECT)
- JONATHAN BAGGER (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER)
- ROBERT ROSNER (PAST PRESIDENT)
- YOUNG-KEE KIM (PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- JONATHAN BAGGER (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER): $737,006 total reported compensation
- RACHEL BURLEY (CHIEF PUBLICATIONS OFFICER): $465,995 total reported compensation
- JANE HOPKINS GOULD (CFOO): $456,386 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The american physical society is an educational and scientific organization whose objective is to advance physics by fostering a vibrant, inclusive, and global community dedicated to science and society. Aps is a membership association which publishes physics journals, conducts scientific meetings, and engages in educational, public affairs and outreach programs.
What it reported doing in 2024
Physics research programs: education and outreach
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Other-operating. 79% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 95% 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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 85
- Transparency & Controls: 83
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 73
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 91.6%; rating input score 92
- Program expense ratio: 87.2%; rating input score 87
- Fundraising efficiency: $9.85 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 21st percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 5 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 83
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Pass
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
- Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
- Requires narrative reports: Pass
- Conducts field audits: Fail
- May suspend future funding: Fail
- Requires financial reports: Pass
- Conducts site visits: Fail
- Requires grant agreements: Fail
- May require repayment: Fail
- Grant itemization coverage: 95.9%; rating input score 96; 29th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 82.4%; rating input score 82; 30th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 14.5%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.44; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.11; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 5.4%; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 4.5% per year; rating input score 100; 36th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 6.2% per year; rating input score 100; 54th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 6.2% per year; rating input score 100; 46th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 91.6% of revenue deployed · 87.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 14 of 17 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 5 filed program accomplishments · $79.3M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $737K · 29 people listed · 5 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $8.3M reported
- Consistency: 36 of 37 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 51 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 37 filed related-organization links
- 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
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.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight: 5 of 8 not reported.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 41/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 14/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.