Curious Society The Curious Society

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
852961662
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2021–2024
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2024
Location
Joliet, MT, USA
Phone
4068558751
Rating
85
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Arts Education

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$3,559
Expenses
$9,465
Assets
$168,666
Liabilities
$94,710

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

Leadership & pay

4 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Kenneth Jarecke (President)

People named in this filing

  • Kenneth Jarecke (President)
  • Meredith Carlson (Director)
  • Carla Morrison (Director)

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 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Educate and support photographers working in the photojournalist tradition.

What it reported doing in 2024

Publication of the Curious Society magazine: The Curious Society met its main goal of publishing its first edition magazine which consisted of 11x14 high quality print magazine that was delivered to subscribers starting in late November of 2021. The Curious Society magazine was sent to over 690 subscribers. The main goal of The Curious Society is to preseve the institutional knowledge photographers and editors need to produce great photojournalism, to raise the industry standards and quality of photojournalism published in the United States, to give opportunities for those wishing to pursue a career as a concerned photographer working in the photojournalistic tradition, and provide education on photojournalism to the public.

Operating model

Revenue model
Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent revenue detail to tell how this nonprofit funds its work.
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 program spending has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 100
  • Transparency & Controls: 82
  • Sustainability: 38
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Limited

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -165.9%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 17.82; rating input score 95; 95th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.56; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -59.6% per year; rating input score 0; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -63.9% per year; rating input score 0; 4th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -4.5% per year; rating input score 0; 25th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $9K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 4 people listed
  • Consistency: 7 of 7 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2021 to 2024
  • 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.

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 5/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 8/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.
  • High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.