Bit Community Center Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 522169101
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2019, Form 990-N 2018
- Location
- Baltimore, MD, USA
- Phone
- 4105479934
- Rating
- 74
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Cultural, Ethnic Awareness
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $276,110
- Expenses
- $278,282
- Assets
- $91,091
- Liabilities
- $44,936
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- FULVIO DOMENICALI (VICE PRESIDENT)
- MONICA E LAPENTA (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- MONICA E LAPENTA (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & CEO): $65,360 total reported compensation
- JAMERA B LEWIS HAWKINS (COMMUNITY PROGRAMS COORDINATOR): $30,340 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 bit's (formerly known as italian cultural center) mission is to support an equitable prosperous baltimore building community health and wealth for citizens of the world who call baltimore home. Always inspired by our italian culture, we do so by empowering families through the arts, building community access to affordable quality food, providing food education, promoting food justice, creating international exchange opportunities, training, and jobs for young adults.bit stands for b-more italian.
What it reported doing in 2024
Be a chef for a daybe a chef for a day gastronomy program - through our award-winning gastronomy program, children master the skill and science of cooking while gaining knowledge about healthy nutrition, cooking skills and grocery shopping on a budget. Be a chef for a day food bus - a former school bus, now a 40' commercial teaching kitchen and food pantry on wheels. Called "bussie bussie," our school bus brings fresh, affordable produce and healthy meals to food insecure areas. Be a chef for a day community food program - during the 2020 pandemic, we addressed intense food insecurity in our local areas by distributing 403,904 meals. Our commitment persisted, now supporting 450+ families weekly with meals, fresh produce, pantry staples, and culinary/nutrition guidance, embodying our mission of instilling hope. Be a chef for a day - national children's gastronomy festival - once a year we hold the national children's gastronomy festival: a month-long event with 35+ cooking classes promoting global connection through cooking. Collaborating with morgan state university, our conference "you are what you eat" explores healthy food equity. Be a chef for a day - in cucina - in our kitchen, we bring the heart of mediterranean cuisine to our community. We offer exclusive cooking classes, cooking conversations, as well as free community cooking classes held in collaboration with our local partners, to help people learn to make delicious and nutritious food.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 96% 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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 81
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Accountability: 56
- Sustainability: 25
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 90.9%; rating input score 91
- Program expense ratio: 90.2%; rating input score 90
- Fundraising efficiency: $0 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 88.9%; rating input score 89; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 1 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 11
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- 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: -0.8%; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.33; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.49; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 34.4%; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 9.9% per year; rating input score 100; 69th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 16.9% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 22% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 90.9% of revenue deployed · 90.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 8 of 9 board members independent · 1 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $251K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $65K · 10 people listed
- Consistency: 19 of 19 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2020 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 4 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.
- High — Accountability: Governance controls: 7 of 8 not reported.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 1/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 37/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 17/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 9/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 11/100.