Icelandic Roots

What it reported doing in 2024

The team at Icelandic Roots continues to make a real mark within the Icelandic Community with our free services, scholarships, education, social media, outreach, and our member database of genealogical and historical information. It is very rewarding to be a part of such a wonderful organization and team of dedicated volunteers.Free services:* 4,800 people follow the IR Blog* 17,668 people like the public IR Facebook page and the reach is often over 68,000.* 300 people are on our IR Member Facebook Group* 338 followers on Pinterest with an average of 6,100 monthly views* 2,200 followers on Instagram* 582 subscribers to our YouTube channel. We added 36 new videos in 2024 to make a total now of 110 videos on our YouTube channel including our exclusive Members Only playlist with 63 videos.* 309 subscribers to our Event Calendar with 10,200 average views* 7,800 downloads on Podcast and published 15 podcasts in 2024.* We posted 105 informative blog posts in 2024.* A Public newsletter is sent out every other Sunday. A Membership newsletter is sent out at least every other Sunday and at other intervals with links to members-only educational seminars.We do extra research and translations as requested and charge for these mission-related program services when appropriate.The Leadership Team continues with 9 people to mentor and coordinate a growing group of volunteers.Icelandic Roots Database:* We have 655 paid subscribers plus 80 volunteers for the organization having access to the online IR Database and all the community activities and offerings.* The total number of individual person genealogical records in our database as of December 31, 2024 was 831,603 and also contained 3,259 sources, 56,193 media items, 3,035 cemeteries, and 611,022 notes.60 major volunteers take care of many items: IT, genealogy, history, cartography, translations, photos, social media, and special features. 23 of these volunteers do most of the work and are part of our SHARED email inbox, in which we sent or received more than 15,000 emails in 2024. This does not include communications sent to us via other channels.We have an awesome IT team who maintain the genealogy database with security and cutting-edge software. They also keep our public website updated with fresh content.- IR Volunteers presented two days of genealogy workshops at the annual Deuce of August celebration in northeast North Dakota and one day in Gimli, Manitoba, Canada at the Icelandic Festival of Manitoba. (Islendingadagurinn)- IR Volunteers met with community leaders in two localities in Iceland to discuss preparations for 2025 ceremonies honoring important emigration ports. We also met with the new President of Iceland to discuss our mission and our 2025 trip. - We began the Icelandic Roots Book Club in 2022 with our first guest speaker and author, the First Lady of Iceland, Eliza Reid. This continues to be held once per month for 7 months each year.- We created a dedicated Writing Team with professional, published authors and they are writing many of our blog posts and working together to improve their writing skills.- We created a 'Membership' Team Leader, managing Samtal, Book Club, the Writing Team, and the Fitness Challenge.- We have published five books - Three children's books: Gudridur's Saga, Mundi Boy of Iceland's West Fjords, and Thor. Also, The Icelandic Emigration Journey and Stories, Sagas, and Captivating Tales.- Samtal Hour continues every other Monday with a dedicated following of about 40 people per session. In 2024 there were 24 Samtal Hour sessions covering a variety of topics.- 22 Member Training videos were put on our YouTube channel and we have added monthly Roots Tips sessions where people can ask questions about the database.- A new Event Calendar was created on the public website to advertise all our events and offerings with 50 total events listed for 2024 with 8 of them for the Public and 42 for members.- Our website continues to be updated and new informatio

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 33.9%; rating input score 34
• Program expense ratio: 83.4%; rating input score 83

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 57.4%; rating input score 95; 95th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 7.13; rating input score 98; 98th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: -3.1% per year; rating input score 0; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 10.2% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 27% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings