Chicago Underground Nfp Corporation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 881544399
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2025–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2024, Form 990-N 2023
- Location
- Chicago, IL, USA
- Phone
- 7733416727
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Film, Video
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $117,716
- Expenses
- $116,350
- Assets
- $13,236
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
9 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Jay Bliznick (Board President)
Highest reported compensation
- Bryan Wendorf (Artistic Director): $19,910 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Chicago Underground NFP Corporation, the nonprofit organization that produces the Chicago Underground Film Festival (CUFF), is an internationally recognized arts organization dedicated to exhibiting documentary, experimental, and avant-garde narrative film and media art. The organization's mission is to select and present innovative moving image works that challenge established practices, foster new approaches to cinematic and media expression, and support artists working at the edges of form and content
What it reported doing in 2025
The Chicago Underground Film Festival presented its 32nd annual festival of experimental, independent, and underground cinema in Chicago, Illinois. The 2025 festival featured 94 films from 108 filmmakers across 52 screening programs. The festival hosted public screenings, filmmaker Q&As, jury panels, and special events including opening and closing night receptions. Filmmaker screening fees and print rental costs were paid to 108 participating filmmakers. The festival served an estimated 3,000 audience members and provided a platform for emerging and established independent filmmakers.
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
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 expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 85
- Transparency & Controls: 84
- Accountability: 73
- Sustainability: 32
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 94.6%; rating input score 95
- Program expense ratio: 95.7%; rating input score 96
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90%; rating input score 90; 10th 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: 88.9%; rating input score 89; 26th 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: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 1.2%; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.11; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 17.1%; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: 20.5% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 55.6% per year; rating input score 100; 96th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 94.6% of revenue deployed · 95.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 8 of 9 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $111K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $20K · 9 people listed
- Consistency: 39 of 40 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
- 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.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 38/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 8/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 21/100.