Goethe Society of North America
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 953551828
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2021–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2020
- Location
- Ames, IA, USA
- Phone
- 5152941610
- Rating
- 46
- Verdict
- MIXED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $52,327
- Expenses
- $72,188
- Assets
- $421,532
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
4 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Heidi Schlipphacke (President)
- Sean Franzel (Vice President)
People named in this filing
- Heidi Schlipphacke (President)
- Claire Baldwin (Secretary)
- William Carter (Treasurer)
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
The Goethe Society of North America was founded in December 1979 in San Francisco as a non-profit organization dedicated to the encouragement of research on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and his age.
What it reported doing in 2025
Organize the international Atkins Goethe Conference every 3 years, including a dissertation workshop and support for graduate students and faculty
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
- 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. 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: 22
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 39
- Growth: 0
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 24.4%; rating input score 24
- Program expense ratio: 17.7%; rating input score 18
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -38%; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 5.84; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -19.1% per year; rating input score 0; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -10% per year; rating input score 0; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -0% per year; rating input score 0; 37th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 24.4% of revenue deployed · 17.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 2 filed program accomplishments · $13K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 4 people listed
- Consistency: 6 of 7 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
- 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 24/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 18/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part III transfer expenses within program total did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 15/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.