Black Fret Dba Sonic Guild
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 460576111
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2015–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Austin, TX, USA
- Phone
- 5126569312
- Rating
- 75
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Music
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,314,308
- Expenses
- $1,538,318
- Assets
- $553,119
- Liabilities
- $19,313
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- COLIN KENDRICK (BOARD CHAIR & PRESIDENT)
- BEN LONDON (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- COLIN KENDRICK (BOARD CHAIR & PRESIDENT): $108,000 total reported compensation
- MATTHEW OTT (BOARD VICE-CHAIR & VICE PR): $108,000 total reported compensation
- BEN LONDON (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $102,000 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Sonic guild builds communities to support the creation and performance of extraordinary new music.
What it reported doing in 2024
Artist mentor program: led by a veteran music industry artist/manager, sonic guild taps into the expertise of scores of music industry experts and professional service providers to enable career development for our artists.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 62% for direct work, and 38% for grants.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 67
- Transparency & Controls: 90
- Accountability: 77
- Sustainability: 18
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 78.3%; rating input score 78
- Program expense ratio: 66.9%; rating input score 67
- Fundraising efficiency: $4.32 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 44
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -17%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.36; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 20.7%; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 11.8% per year; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 13.6% per year; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 14.7% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 78.3% of revenue deployed · 66.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 4 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $108K · 5 people listed
- Consistency: 25 of 26 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 9 filing years from 2015 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 3 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.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 8 not reported.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 14/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 11/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 17/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 14/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 56/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.