GroundSpark
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 830498854
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2019–2023
- Official website data refreshed
- Jul 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2020, Form 990-EZ 2023
- Location
- San Francisco, CA, USA
- Phone
- 4156414616
- Rating
- 75
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Film, Video
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $10,923
- Expenses
- $56,114
- Assets
- $0
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2023. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
7 people listed
People named in this filing
- Elizabeth Seja Min (Board Member)
- Joan Lefkowitz (Co-Chair)
- Nancy Otto (Board Member)
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 2023. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
GroundSpark's visionary films and dynamic educational campaigns move individuals and communities to take action for a more just world.
What it reported doing in 2023
Film Distribution and Film Production: GroundSpark continues to use multi-media, online and print resources to further dialogue and community engagement. Through our film distribution, we have been able to support the wide use of our Respect for All Project films to bring attention to LGBT issues in multiple academic disciplines including gender studies, racial justice, comprehensive sex education and youth development. We continue to promote an anti-bias perspective in addressing bullying through the five Respect for All project films: Straight-laced - How Gender's Got Us All Tied Up, Let's Get Real, That's a Family!, It's Elementary - Talking about Gay Issues in School, and It's Still Elementary.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 78% 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
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of total spending goes to programs and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 83
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 9
- Growth: 0
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 53.9%; rating input score 54
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -413.7%; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0; rating input score 2; 2nd 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: -36.7% per year; rating input score 0; 11th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -45% per year; rating input score 0; 7th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -25.2% per year; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 53.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $30K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 7 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2019 to 2023
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 54/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 3/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 2/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: California registration: this organization is recorded as not currently operating in California.