Esperanto League for North America Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
942240404
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Sacramento, CA, USA
Phone
8003773726
Rating
64
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Community Service Clubs

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$298,861
Expenses
$124,006
Assets
$784,278
Liabilities
$10,169

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

13 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Brandon Sowers (President)
  • Quintyn Bobb (Vice President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Amanda Schmidt (Executive Dir.): $40,919 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

We exist to serve the community of speakers of the international auxiliary language Esperanto within the U.S., as well as provide information about the language to the public. We provide an online bookstore, an annual conference, an annual film festival, a quarterly member newsletter, scholarships and more.

What it reported doing in 2025

We run an annual short film festival, the American Good Film Festival, which encourages anyone in the world, including non-Esperanto-speakers, to create short films entirely in Esperanto. This successful competition incentivizes participation by providing cash prizes to the top ten winners, as well as an audience choice award that encourages engagement on our YouTube channel. It also provides a creative outlet for our community to use Esperanto in a fun and practical way, while informing the public about Esperanto. In 2025, 49 films were submitted, bringing our total to almost 200, the largest collection of scripted Esperanto-language films in history. Our subscriber count on YouTube now sits at almost 3000.

Operating model

Revenue model
Investment-supported. 64% of the money available for current operations came from recurring investment income.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 74% for direct work, and 26% for grants.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 26
  • Transparency & Controls: 94
  • Accountability: 84
  • Sustainability: 74
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 19%; rating input score 19
  • Program expense ratio: 45.3%; rating input score 45
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
    • 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: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 58.5%; rating input score 93; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 6.32; rating input score 83; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 33%; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 8.2% per year; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 22.2% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 13.6% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 19% of revenue deployed · 45.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 7 filed program accomplishments · $56K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $41K · 13 people listed
  • Consistency: 23 of 23 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 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.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 19/100.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 45/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 9/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 38/100.