Cappella Romana

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
931124501
IRS 990 coverage
2009–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Portland, OR, USA
Phone
5032368202
Rating
80
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$982,715
Expenses
$1,000,232
Assets
$493,522
Liabilities
$197,747

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

10 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • JOHN PATERAKIS (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • MARK POWELL (EXECUTIVE DI): $137,173 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Musical performances for the public.

What it reported doing in 2024

As one of the leading professional chamber choirs in north america both by budget and activity level, cappella romana aims to be the preeminent global proponent of early and contemporary vocal music inspired by byzantium, the slavic commonwealth, and their interactions with western traditions. Founded by music director alexander lingas in 1991, its highly focused programs offer a glimpse of the transcendent in vocal art, made possible by deep, original musicological and ethnographical research. Reaching more audiences each year and acclaimed recently in gramophone magazine ("a sound world of unique beauty"), the portland, Oregon based ensemble presents a west coast concert series (portland and seattle) as its main program offering. Collaborations with peers, such as portland art museum, portland baroque orchestra, kingdom sound gospel choir, and 45th parallel universe, reach broad audiences, as do its regional, national, and international tours. Cappella's recent international tours include performances in romania and national tours include performances in Washington (dc), boston, new orleans, houston, New York, los angeles, and seattle. Cappella records (cappella romana's own record label) now has over 35 released recordings, which are distributed by naxos of america, and a recent release of the st. Tikhon choir garnered a grammy nomination, and another won a juno award (the canadian "grammys"). Cappella romana was one of the earliest adopters of the arts for all program. This program, begun in 2007, benefits citizens in the portland metropolitan area on food assistance (snap), and cappella romana extends this benefit to those in Washington state as well. Any holder of an snap card may purchase 5 tickets to any cappella romana concert. The regular market-rate for tickets range from 22 to 80. Snap credit is not used for purchasing tickets. The arts for all program enables lower income individuals to experience the beauty of cappella romana's musical performance, in person, at a fraction of the regular price. Cappella romana concerts are open to the public without regard to race, color, ethnic origin, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or disability. We will not turn someone away for the lack of ability to pay. Cappella romana also provides its recordings without charge to the nonprofit all classical portland radio station to ensure that the greater community can experience our live performances and recordings. All classical's listenership is over 150,000. Cappella romana also offers free recitals of its musical program for the public as a gift to the community, in performances such as at portland's greek festival and for the northwest chapter conference of the american guild of organists. Cappella romana has also performed free of charge in hospitals, with a set of holiday carols for chronically ill patients there, and for weddings and funerals in its community. During the pandemic and now after, additional free performances were broadcast online and available worldwide. Program activity in fy25 cappella romana began fy25 with the release in july 2024 of sam herron's book "the divine liturgy," the third major title of cappella romana publications, a collection of byzantine chants in english. In september 2024, cappella romana toured to houston-performing for the catholic liturgy association and houston early music-and to New York for the st. Ignatius series, presenting "lost voices of hagia sophia." as a free outreach event, the ensemble also sang vespers at the portland greek festival in october. October 2024 also brought the release of the recording "a ukrainian wedding,- and the premiere of "in the footsteps of st. Demetrios," with a residency at ucla and concerts in the northwest and in los angeles, including recording sessions at ucla and work with student singers. In november, cappella romana presented the celebrated belgian ensemble vox luminis in portland and seattle, performing music of monteverdi. Also in november

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
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

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 82
  • Transparency & Controls: 85
  • Accountability: 79
  • Sustainability: 27
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 95.3%; rating input score 95
  • Program expense ratio: 81.4%; rating input score 81
  • Fundraising efficiency: $4.98 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 8th 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • 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: -1.8%; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.49; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.4; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 13.7%; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 5.3% per year; rating input score 100; 44th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 8.3% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 11.5% per year; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 95.3% of revenue deployed · 81.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $814K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $137K · 10 people listed
  • Consistency: 28 of 29 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 15 filing years from 2009 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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.

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 17/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 31/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 23/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 19/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 26/100.