Cleveland Silent Film Festival and Colloquium
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 880667554
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2022–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025
- Location
- Cleveland Heights, OH, USA
- Phone
- 9199330698
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Film, Video
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $27,315
- Expenses
- $30,331
- Assets
- $3,480
- Liabilities
- $1,335
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Emily Laurance (Executive Director)
People named in this filing
- Emily Laurance (Executive Director)
- Caroline Breder-Watts (Board Member)
- David Cohen (Board Member)
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 Cleveland Silent Film Festival was founded in 2022 to present high quality and diverse films from the silent era accompanied by the best silent film music specialists at multiple venues in Cleveland and Oberlin, Ohio. Our mission is enhanced by educational workshops and modules given by visiting artists to music students at area high school and collegiate institutions, who present additional accompanied film screenings to the public. Programming also includes speakers with expertise in the history of silent film and silent film music. The Cleveland Silent Film Festival is committed to connecting with Cleveland's Cultural History and in choosing films that highlight the work of international and underrepresented filmmakers and actors.
What it reported doing in 2025
Between 2/1/2025 and 12/31/2026 we presented a variety of classic silent films with live music in various venues, notably our annual festival event in September at the Cleveland Museum of Art, as well as two monthly series held in conjunction with Cleveland Public Library and the West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 76% 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 - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Program spending has declined or grown slowly and revenue has declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 87
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 25
- Growth: 0
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 89.6%; rating input score 90
- Program expense ratio: 80.7%; rating input score 81
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -11%; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.11; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.38; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -7.2% per year; rating input score 0; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -6.2% per year; rating input score 0; 31st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -8.4% per year; rating input score 0; 19th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 89.6% of revenue deployed · 80.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $24K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 11 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 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.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 28/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 14/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 9/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.