Humanitas

Legal name: Human Family Educational and Cultural Institute

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
237424845
IRS 990 coverage
2019–2024
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Santa Monica, CA, United States
Phone
310-454-8769
Rating
79
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Religion Related N.E.C.
Affiliation
Religious (unspecified)

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,067,508
Expenses
$908,016
Assets
$4,588,266
Liabilities
$3,500

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

10 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • MICHELLE FRANKE (EXECUTIVE DI): $217,848 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Humanitas honors and empowers film and television writers whose work explores the human condition in a nuanced, meaningful way. “Whatever we can do to empower, enrich, and support writers, we should do because it is writers who show us where we’ve been and where we are going as a culture,” Kieser said, “and that is a journey we need to explore richly and deeply with writers leading the way.” HUMANITAS COMMUNITY VALUES STATEMENT Achieving the mission of Humanitas requires an environment of trust, safety, mutual respect, free expression, and inquiry. Community members ought to integrate these values into their experience with Humanitas, whether in workshop discussions or engaging in Industry 101 chat rooms. Through a collective commitment to these beliefs, we can create an environment in which we can strive to achieve.

What it reported doing in 2024

The second program service accomplishment is the new voices & college screenwriting awards. The organization also operates two programs for emerging writers. The new voices fellowship is a mentorship program, running for approximately six-months, that pairs five emerging writers each year with a professional writer who acts as their mentor, and further supports them with access to networking opportunities, interactive workshops, and a suite of other benefits. The college screenwriting awards, meanwhile, recognize screenwriters whose work advances the humanitas mission and who are currently enrolled in a college or university program. Humanitas annually awards two prizes which recognize excellent student screen and television writing: the david and lynn angell college comedy award and the carol mendelsohn college drama award. The awardees receive a cash prize, a professional notes session, and a suite of other benefits.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 78
  • Transparency & Controls: 70
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 69
  • Growth: 80

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 84.8%; rating input score 85
  • Program expense ratio: 83.4%; rating input score 83
  • Fundraising efficiency: $8.23 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 32; 32nd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
    • 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: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 14.9%; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 5.05; rating input score 85; 85th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 24%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 2.8% per year; rating input score 100; 31st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 17.8% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -4.3% per year; rating input score 0; 7th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 2 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
  • Where the money goes: 84.8% of revenue deployed · 83.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $758K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $218K · 10 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 23 of 23 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2019 to 2024
  • 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.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 32/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 11/100.