Hemlock Society of San Diego Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 330467982
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2018–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2017
- Location
- San Diego, CA, USA
- Phone
- 6192334418
- Rating
- 61
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Right to Die, Euthanasia
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $91,747
- Expenses
- $69,465
- Assets
- $88,639
- Liabilities
- $1,371
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Christopher Palmer (Vice President)
- Faye Girsh (President)
People named in this filing
- Christopher Palmer (Vice President)
- Faye Girsh (President)
- Christie Golemb (Secretary)
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
Educating San Diegans in end-of-life choices
What it reported doing in 2025
Hemlock Society of San Diego (HSSD) has 450 active members across the country. In 2025 we produced 6 educational meetings by experts, free to the public via Zoom, attended by 80-150 attendees across the U.S. The videos of these meetings are freely accessible to the public at large on our website, which has additional resources of interest to seniors and those contemplating their end-of-life. Some of these videos have received thousands of views. We also presented a 3 part workshop (Chris Palmer) via Zoom on achieving a good death. We produced two in-person meetings with refreshments for a nominal fee. Team Compassion has responded directly to 46 people inquiring about topics ranging from finding a death doula to planning for their own or their loved ones end of life.HSSD distributed detailed information on California's End of Life Option Act at an in person town hall focused on advocacy for expanding the law. Hemlock speakers presented in person educational information on topics such as advance care planning and preparing for end of life to 8 restricted audiences.Additionally, we have a mailing list of over 1,600 people that receive our monthly newsletter with world-wide newsworthy topics related to end of life options and advance care planning. We are members of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies. Some board members travel to these bi-yearly meetings at their own expense to keep up-to-date on worldwide happenings.
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
- 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 - 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: 28
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 55
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 24.7%; rating input score 25
- Program expense ratio: 32.7%; rating input score 33
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 24.3%; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.28; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 13.2%; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 10.9% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 8.5% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -7.1% per year; rating input score 0; 21st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 24.7% of revenue deployed · 32.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $23K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 10 people listed
- Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 7 filing years from 2018 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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 25/100.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 33/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 54/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 9/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 23/100.