Community Media Center of Carroll County Inc

What it reported doing in 2024

In fy25 the community media center (cmc) worked to increase the quality, engagement and efficiency of our content production and build partnerships with community organizations, schools and members while focusing on being good stewards of our resources. The community media center aired 429 original programs on cable channel hd-1072 resulting in a total of 323 programming hours. Cmc's local sports coverage, central Maryland sports network branded as cmsportsnet, constituted 280 of those original programs, generating 189 total hours of local sports programming. Cable channel 19 aired 106 programs that were community produced or submitted on behalf of local organizations for a total of 86 programming hours channel 23 aired 235 original programs for a total of 234 hours of programming this is a 21% increase in coverage compared to fy24 and 10% increase in total programming hours interest in cmc's online content grew across multiple platforms. In february 2025, the cmc launched a new website. The goal was to create a robust web content management solution that uses current technology, at a lower cost to maintain, including subsequent upgrades, and will take advantage of a robust community of active contributors toward code enhancement, libraries and templates. Cmc's website (https://www.carrollmediacenter.org/) had 65,000 views and 26,694 users in fy25. This is a 16% increase in views over fy24. There were 59,643 visits to cmc's facebook page in fy 25 vs 25,668 visits in fy24. This is a 32% increase from last fiscal year. Cmc's youtube channel increased total views by 26% in fy25 cmc had a total of 220,000 youtube views vs 175,000 in fy24 and cmc added 710 subscribers resulting in a 31% increase in growth over the last fiscal year. Cmc's cmsportsnet's instagram page grew from 708 followers in fy24 to 3,376 in fy25. (average monthly total views were 209,2845) the cmc established the position of director of business development in november 2024 to increase organizational capacity to diversify funding sources due to the decline of cable franchise fee revenues. Total revenues from sponsorships for fy25 was 81,800, a 97% increase from fy24. Cmsportsnet sponsorships were the top priority. Sponsorship revenue commitments were 22,000 through 12/30 and subsequently increased resulting in 72,800 raised. This included eight new sponsors and two renewing sponsors. An additional 9,000 was raised through sponsorships of the veterans oral history project, introducing two new sponsors and one existing sponsor. The cmc provides a comprehensive array of digital media services for carroll county, Maryland and adjacent communities. Services include outreach, training, production facilitation, production and creative services and digital media distribution via cable, video streaming, web and social media. The cmc provides video coverage for eight municipalities in carroll county, Maryland. This includes routine gavel-to-gavel meeting coverage as well as special meetings and events. Meetings are streamed live on the cmc's website, on social media platforms and on cable channel 23 to ensure access for the public to engage with their local governments. In fy25, cmc increased the municipal meeting coverage by 21% compared to the prior year. In fy25, cmc aired 235 municipal meetings and events, airing a total of 234 hours of municipal programming. Cmc continues to be a source of independent unbiased information regarding candidates running for public office. Cmc provided no-cost production services with strict guidelines to ensure nonpartisan equal treatment, in the form of candidate video profiles to all local candidates running in contested races in the 2024 general election and the 2025 municipal elections. In addition, cmc created an online voters' guide to provide the public important dates, election information, polling locations, video profiles and live coverage of local candidate forums. All candidate profiles and election forums were streamed live

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 78.9%; rating input score 79
• Program expense ratio: 70.8%; rating input score 71
• Fundraising efficiency: $26.57 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
  • Compensation committee: Missing
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
  • Written employment contract: Pass
  • Compensation survey or study: Missing
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• 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: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • 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: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: -10.4%; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.91; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.09; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 10.3%; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 2.3% per year; rating input score 100; 28th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 3.4% per year; rating input score 100; 34th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 6.9% per year; rating input score 100; 47th percentile among comparable filings