Citiscope
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 273169031
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2011–2016
- Forms available
- Form 990 2015, Form 990-EZ 2016
- Location
- Minneapolis, MN, USA
- Phone
- 6513033026
- Rating
- 91
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Media, Communications Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $51,258
- Expenses
- $661,524
- Assets
- $71,264
- Liabilities
- $6,875
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2016. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- CURTIS JOHNSON (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
People named in this filing
- DON BORUT (CHAIR)
- RICHARD FLEMING (VICE CHAIR)
- CHRISTINE PLATT (SECRETARY)
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 2016. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Citiscope was designed to enrich the global urban knowledge base around the world by providing quality, relevant information through independent journalism.
What it reported doing in 2016
Citiscope is an online news service offering a "solutions journalism" approach to urban challenges. We have built a global network of journalists telling stories on innovations in their cities, curated and edited by an editorial team led by veteran urban journalist neal peirce and our highly regarded managing editor, christopher swope. The service was lunched in january of 2014. The service can be located at www.citiscope.org.citiscope's target audience is people in a position to shape the future of cities - mayors and other local officials, civic and business leaders and grassroots leaders. Rather than the scandal and misdeed focus of many media, we seek out examples of new and innovative approaches and solutions to urban problems. Our chief product is a story on a noteworthy innovation from cities across the globe, commissioned from a local journalist. Our companion service, citisignals, includes curated summaries of major city-related events occurring every week. As a media organization, citiscope also keeps its eye out for special coverage areas related to its principal mission. One such special idea - covering the events and challenges in the run-up to the habitat iii conference - became too compelling to ignore and citiscope launched into it in the spring of 2015.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 99% 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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 92
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 8
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 79%; rating input score 79
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -1,190.6%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.11; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.1; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 8.3%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 39.6% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 25.6% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 30.4% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 79% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $522K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 10 people listed
- Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2011 to 2016
- 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.
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 — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 2/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 10/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 11/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 24/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.