Center for Civil Society and Democracy in Syria
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 473016681
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2015–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Washington, DC, USA
- Phone
- 5089819543
- Rating
- 79
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Standard
- Sector
- International Peace and Security
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,370,697
- Expenses
- $1,236,167
- Assets
- $325,132
- Liabilities
- $165,793
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- Rajaa Altalli (Director): $122,077 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Raise Awareness of the benefits of a democratic society in Syria, promote democratic values within Syria, and to devise new ways to connect communities through democratic Ideology in Syria
What it reported doing in 2024
Civil Society Empowerment. CCSDS empowered Syrian led civil society organizations through workshops and interventions to respond to the humanitarian needs exploring the nexus with development and peace building. The needs of the local communities will be met through the interventions
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 71% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Grant intermediary. The nonprofit sent 77% of its reported program spending out as grants.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - 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 some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 81
- Transparency & Controls: 72
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 38
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 79.9%; rating input score 80
- Program expense ratio: 88.5%; rating input score 88
- Fundraising efficiency: $25.56 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 85.7%; rating input score 86; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: 0 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Claims monitoring procedures: Limited
- Requires narrative reports: Limited
- Conducts field audits: Limited
- May suspend future funding: Limited
- Requires financial reports: Limited
- Conducts site visits: Limited
- Requires grant agreements: Limited
- May require repayment: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd 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: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 9.8%; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.26; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.51; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 9.9%; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 0% per year; rating input score 100; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 4.2% per year; rating input score 100; 38th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 27.3% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 79.9% of revenue deployed · 88.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $1.2M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $122K · 5 people listed
- Consistency: 29 of 31 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and foreign activity
- Filing history: 9 filing years from 2015 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 12/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 15/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Schedule G fundraiser detail did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 37/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.