Hovsepian Ministries Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
364605569
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Burbank, CA, USA
Phone
8185170101
Rating
85
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Protestant
Affiliation
Christianity

Reported finances

Revenue
$318,778
Expenses
$343,362
Assets
$260,010
Liabilities
$3,440

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

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • Joseph Hovsepian (Executive Dir.): $60,000 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Hovsepian Ministries was formed to share the good news of the Gospel and a message of hope with the Farsi-speaking world through satellite, online resources and events.

What it reported doing in 2025

Geranbaha - (meaning Precious) is a platform that touches tens of thousands of Iranian lives on a daily basis through its website, social media channels and live programs. It provides access to teaching, worship resources, daily devotionals, discipleship, articles, audio sermons and more all available in video, audio, and text formats. The Iranian peoples response to the widespread distribution of all of this fresh Christian content has been overwhelmingly positive, and it continues to lead to one-on-one communications with viewers through secure messaging or calling on some of the media apps (such as Telegram) that host Geranbaha.Geranbahas audience is quickly turning into a virtual church, where members are benefiting not only from spiritual resources, but fellowship as well. Since its launch, Geranbahas media content and trained follow-up team have led hundreds of people to to Christ and helped thousands more to grow in their faith. Our communication channels are overwhelmingly busy, receiving an average of 2,700 content downloads per day making Geranbaha one of the largest, most up-to-date and most engaging internet and on-air platforms for Farsi Christian resources. In addition, Geranbahas footprints can be traced to several other ministries who are now frequently using its new, creative and high-quality content freely as a tool for their ministry to Iranians.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 92% 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

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 93
  • Transparency & Controls: 85
  • Accountability: 84
  • Sustainability: 27
  • Growth: 80

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 80.7%; rating input score 81
  • Fundraising efficiency: $333.33 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 93; 93rd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • 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: -7.7%; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.76; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 17.5%; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 0.6% per year; rating input score 100; 31st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 1.6% per year; rating input score 100; 28th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -4% per year; rating input score 0; 11th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 80.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $277K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $60K · 5 people listed
  • Consistency: 23 of 24 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2020 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.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 22/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 34/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 21/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 38/100.