Friends of the Santa Rosa Libraries
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 942565792
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2020–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025
- Location
- Santa Rosa, CA, USA
- Phone
- 7073083020
- Rating
- 52
- Verdict
- MIXED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $152,099
- Expenses
- $92,586
- Assets
- $285,671
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Julia Freis (President)
- Joe Seymour (Vice President & Treasurer)
- Jerry Benson (2nd Vice President)
People named in this filing
- Julia Freis (President)
- Joe Seymour (Vice President & Treasurer)
- Jerry Benson (2nd Vice President)
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
We sell books, donated and library discards, to raise funds for the five branches of the Santa Rosa Libraries: History & Genealogy, Roseland, Northwest, Rincon Valley, Central. An all volunteer operation. Funds are used to support children's, teen's, and adult literacy and other library programs or materials approved by the board of directors. Our current goal is to accumulate savings for a new building in Roseland. The land and building is funded and ground breaking has occurred this past year. We have already publicly committed to contributing $100,000 for library materials in 2026 and committed an additional $50,000 for renovations at another branch.
What it reported doing in 2025
We received requests totaling $82,500 for activities at all five branches and all requests were approved and funded. Our book sales continue to be very successful and our fund balance is growing. I expect our fund balance to continue to grow but, as per our charter, all funds will eventually be delivered to the libraries. $50,000 of that total was presented at a public fund raising event hosted by the Sonoma County Library Foundation and was used to excite additional donations by attendees. That event raised more than $200,000 for the new Roseland Library that is under construction.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Other-operating. 90% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
- Distribution model
- Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.
The verdict
MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up and program spending has grown recently. 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: 21
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 83
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 17.2%; rating input score 17
- Program expense ratio: 28.3%; rating input score 28
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 39.1%; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.09; rating input score 89; 89th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 79.5% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 29.4% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 33.4% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 17.2% of revenue deployed · 28.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $26K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 8 of 9 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 6 filing years from 2020 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- 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 17/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 28/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part III transfer expenses within program total did not reconcile in the filed values.