Empty Space Productions
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 562370660
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2021–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025
- Location
- Bakersfield, CA, USA
- Phone
- 6613277529
- Rating
- 83
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Theater
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $177,027
- Expenses
- $143,035
- Assets
- $33,992
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
12 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Jesus Fidel (Interim Executive Director)
People named in this filing
- Kristina Saldana (Financial Director)
- Jesus Fidel (Interim Executive Director)
- Ron Warren (Operation 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 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Providing live theatre and art gallery to the community of Bakersfield.
What it reported doing in 2025
The primary accomplishments of the organization is the production of plays and musicals, which comprises of the bulk of our revenue and expenses. We have over 100 volunteers each year and have at least 5000 people in attendance at our shows (though some may be repeat viewings by the same people).
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 61% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- 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. Some filed totals do not add up and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 88
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 47
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 80.8%; rating input score 81
- 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: 19.2%; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.24; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 12.7% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 21.3% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -27.2% per year; rating input score 0; 5th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 80.8% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $143K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 12 people listed
- Consistency: 5 of 6 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2021 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- 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.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part I part ii net assets crosscheck did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 22/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Grant Readiness: California registration: this organization could not be resolved against the register, so the check is unfinished.