Charlotte Film Society
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 273319192
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2021–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2020, Form 990-N 2019
- Location
- Charlotte, NC, USA
- Rating
- 75
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Film, Video
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,555,087
- Expenses
- $1,495,968
- Assets
- $3,534,688
- Liabilities
- $2,047,680
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
15 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- Bradley S Ritter (Executive Dir.): $92,350 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The Charlotte Film Societys primary mission is to bring arthouse foreign and independent films to Charlotte and to educate, enable and engage the community through film. The Independent Picture House, and is open year around.
What it reported doing in 2025
CFS/IPH is committed to keeping cinema accessible, affordable, and informative for the public. This is primarily done through community-oriented events such as the Community Impact Film Series (CIFS) and Indie on Wheels (IoW). CIFS is an on-going free event series that rotates on issues the community is facing. In 2025, these subjects included: human trafficking, womens health, environmental justice, mental health, immigration reform, animal welfare, invisible/visible disabilities, and housing insecurity/homelessness. Each CIFS event includes a film screening, panel discussion, resource fair, and some form of activation (volunteer opportunity, movement class, artistic reaction, etc.). IoW is a film series in which IPH removes the barrier of transportation by bringing movies out into the community. Most of these events occur in libraries, rec centers, and public spaces due to ASCs Culture Blocks Grant support. In 2025, IPH presented 12 IoW events that are free to the public.
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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
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: 75
- Transparency & Controls: 86
- Accountability: 58
- Sustainability: 47
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 88%; rating input score 88
- Program expense ratio: 75.3%; rating input score 75
- Fundraising efficiency: $2.17 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 18th 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 0 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Fail
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 3.8%; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.36; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.58; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 6.2%; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 47.8% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 36.8% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 39.2% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 88% of revenue deployed · 75.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 14 of 14 board members independent · 0 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $1.1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $92K · 15 people listed
- Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $157K reported
- Consistency: 25 of 26 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2021 to 2025
- 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Accountability: Governance controls: 7 of 7 not reported.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 6/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 42/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 10/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 48/100.