Carnatic Music Association of North America

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
112654179
IRS 990 coverage
2017–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2016
Location
Blue Bell, PA, USA
Phone
9085210500
Rating
69
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$110,322
Expenses
$121,275
Assets
$804,451
Liabilities
$0

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Som Sowmyan (President)
  • Venkatakrishnan Rajagopal (Vice President)

People named in this filing

  • Som Sowmyan (President)
  • Venkatakrishnan Rajagopal (Vice President)
  • Rhama Narayanan (Secretary)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Promotion of Carnatic Muscic in North America

What it reported doing in 2025

The organizations annual C3 festival comprising of conferences, competitions and concerts in September 2025 had a lot of educational initiatives. CMANA has played a pivotal role in enriching the musical journey of its members, fostering a deeper appreciation for carnatic music, and providing a supportive community for both novices and seasoned performers. National Carnatic Artistes day concerts for US based carnatic artists was held in October to nurture talent in U.S. CMANA funded seed money to colloborate on project started to enumerate educational credits in K-12 schools.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 72% 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 revenue has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 66
  • Transparency & Controls: 82
  • Accountability: 64
  • Sustainability: 51
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 76.7%; rating input score 77
  • Program expense ratio: 69.2%; rating input score 69
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 15th 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 1 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 14
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • 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: Fail
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -9.9%; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 6.63; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 8.6% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -1.6% per year; rating input score 0; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 5.1% per year; rating input score 100; 44th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 76.7% of revenue deployed · 69.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 1540 of 1540 board members independent · 1 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $84K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
  • Consistency: 20 of 21 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 9 filing years from 2017 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • 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: 6 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 19/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.