China Evangelical Seminary North America
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 954366755
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2013–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Location
- West Covina, CA, United States
- Phone
- +1 626-917-9482
- Rating
- 81
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Christianity
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $3,409,806
- Expenses
- $2,248,034
- Assets
- $12,389,605
- Liabilities
- $4,617,312
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- SAMUEL LIU (PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- SAMUEL LIU (PRESIDENT): $96,830 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
China Evangelical Seminary North America (CESNA) provides Christianity-based theological education—rooted in biblical truth and centered on exalting Christ and His cross—with the ambition to preach the gospel and equip saints to serve churches. CESNA is an international seminary located in East Los Angeles that teaches in Chinese. Rooted in biblical truth, exalting Christ and His cross, we eager to preach the gospel of God, with the ambition to equip saints and serve churches. CESNA was originated from the China Evangelical Seminary in Taiwan in the early years. Over the years, with God’s use and blessing, she developed from an education center into a branch campus. In 2007, it became independent from Huashen in TW. The internationally renowned Dr. Liang Jieqiong (Katherine) served as the founding dean (rested in the Lord 2022). Thanks to the hard work of Dean Liang and other...
What it reported doing in 2024
Manage and operate a christian seminary including offsite seminars.
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 98% 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
STRONG - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of total spending goes to programs. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 64
- Transparency & Controls: 94
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 76
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 57.6%; rating input score 58
- Program expense ratio: 69.2%; rating input score 69
- Fundraising efficiency: $50.89 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd 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: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 34.1%; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 5.51; rating input score 85; 85th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.37; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 4.3%; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 4.2% per year; rating input score 100; 34th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 11% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 6.4% per year; rating input score 100; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 57.6% of revenue deployed · 69.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.6M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $97K · 10 people listed
- Consistency: 33 of 33 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 11 filing years from 2013 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.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 58/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 29/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 59/100.