Creative Commons Corporation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
043585301
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2020
Location
Mountain View, CA, USA
Phone
4154296753
Rating
76
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Standard
Sector
Libraries

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,439,364
Expenses
$3,912,384
Assets
$9,257,455
Liabilities
$96,505

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

19 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • ANNA TUMADOTTIR (CEO)
  • CATHERINE STIHLER (CEO (THRU 12/31/23))

Highest reported compensation

  • ANNA TUMADOTTIR (CEO): $254,431 total reported compensation
  • CABLE GREEN (DIRECTOR OF OPEN EDUCATION): $237,445 total reported compensation
  • KATHLEEN WALSH (LICENSING/COPYRIGHT COUNSEL/SECRETARY): $172,657 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

See schedule o

What it reported doing in 2024

We offer a ten-week cc certificate program tailored to the education and library sectors, as well as galleries, libraries, archives, and museums. By the close of 2024, we certified 1,890 graduates across 68 countries. We provided 35 scholarships to enable more community members access to the cc certificate training and partnered with bccampus to support subsidized cc certificate training for 25 public institutions and 21 private institutions within british columbia, canada; and us midwest higher education compact (mhec), enabling subsidized cc certificate training for faculty and staff from higher education institutions in 48 us states. In 2024, we facilitated 31 trainings and presentations for national governments, journals, librarians, cultural heritage professionals, web developers, higher education faculty and staff, as well as open advocates, spanning at least seven different countries. We funded five open education platform projects, spanning brazil, ghana, nepal, and nigeria. We also served on unesco's oer advisory group, where we helped to draft the dubai declaration on open education resources (oer) and attended the hewlett education grantee conference with unesco in atlanta, Georgia. We also zeroed in on a possible intervention, preference signals, a framework that empowers creators to indicate the terms by which their work can be used for ai training. On the community front, we conducted an internal assessment of the global network using historical data, community surveys, and interviews with chapter leads.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 82% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
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.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 81
  • Transparency & Controls: 76
  • Accountability: 93
  • Sustainability: 31
  • Growth: 20

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 64.7%; rating input score 65
  • Fundraising efficiency: $8.99 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: 1 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 12
    • Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
    • Requires narrative reports: Fail
    • Conducts field audits: Fail
    • May suspend future funding: Fail
    • Requires financial reports: Fail
    • Conducts site visits: Fail
    • Requires grant agreements: Fail
    • May require repayment: Fail
  • Grant itemization coverage: 95.8%; rating input score 96; 31st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 87.5%; rating input score 88; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -60.4%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.37; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 85; 85th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 34.2%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -3.8% per year; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -0.5% per year; rating input score 0; 10th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 3.9% per year; rating input score 100; 29th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 64.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 8 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $2.5M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $254K · 19 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $124K reported
  • Consistency: 32 of 33 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 9 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, executive pay, and related organizations
  • Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 8 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.
  • 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.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight: 7 of 8 not reported.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 34/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 2/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 4/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Foreign grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.