Ciceronian Society Foundation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 455217591
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2024–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2023
- Location
- Holland, MI, USA
- Phone
- 7342650149
- Rating
- 76
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Printing, Publishing
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $182,662
- Expenses
- $160,481
- Assets
- $56,822
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JAMES PATTERSON (PRESIDENT)
People named in this filing
- JAMES PATTERSON (PRESIDENT)
- WILLIAM BATCHELDER IV (CHAIRMAN)
- MATTHEW GRIZZLE (TREASURER)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The ciceronian society exists to equip and encourage christian scholars to serve the church as a center of cultural and civic renewal through publications and conferences. In 2025, we held a conference in harrisonburg, va which sold out at 150 attendees and 34 scholarly panels and 6 sponsors. Attendees and presenters included clergy, non-profit leaders, independent scholars, graduate and undergraduate students, and faculty from across the humanities and social sciences. We secured additional funding for our new conference fellowship program and tripled the number of applications for the 2026 event. We also inaugurated a major book prize for research on the american founding, called the herbert j. Storing pirze, which was presented at the conference. We launched a new membership program, obtaining 155 members by the end of 2025, exceeding our goal of 150. In addition to providing revenue, the membership program will help us connect scholars and educators to one antoher for personal and
What it reported doing in 2025
The ciceronian society publishes a peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal called pietas, which includes original research articles and book reviews. The only expenses for this open access journal are books for review.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 83% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- 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 - The filed numbers largely add up and program spending has grown recently. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 59
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 38
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 56.4%; rating input score 56
- Program expense ratio: 64.2%; rating input score 64
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 12.1%; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.35; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 29.9%; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 71.2% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 67.4% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 48.5% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 56.4% of revenue deployed · 64.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $103K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 10 people listed
- Consistency: 6 of 6 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 2 filing years from 2024 to 2025
- 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 56/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 30/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 59/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 12/100.