Ithaka
Legal name: Ithaka Harbors Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 133857105
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Location
- New York, NY, USA
- Phone
- 2123586400
- Rating
- 76
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Interdisciplinary Research
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $125,968,256
- Expenses
- $112,220,320
- Assets
- $375,527,423
- Liabilities
- $180,556,904
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
31 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- KEVIN GUTHRIE (TRUSTEE & PRESIDENT)
- REBECCA SEGER (VICE PRESIDENT, IPSP)
Highest reported compensation
- KEVIN GUTHRIE (TRUSTEE & PRESIDENT): $647,268 total reported compensation
- MICHELLE LEE (CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER): $459,769 total reported compensation
- REBECCA SEGER (VICE PRESIDENT, IPSP): $446,752 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To improve access to knowledge and education for people around the world. I am the Account Development Manager on the International team. My job allows me to tap into my previous experience as a librarian and archivist, which I love. I enjoy engaging directly with those communities. My primary motivation is knowing that I am able to help institutions through difficult decision-making processes. We’ve been offering expanded access to thousands of librarians across the world, dating back to March 2020. It’s really nice to talk about our charitable mindset as an organization versus always having sales-based conversations. Esther Fisher Esther Fisher Application Support Specialist.
What it reported doing in 2024
Jstor - see schedule ojstor is a mission-driven digital library that works with the academic community to preserve, provide access to, and support the use of scholarly content. Our collections contain nearly 14 million academic journal articles, 100,000 books, and 2 million images and primary source items. These materials are accessible to scholars and students at 14,000+ higher education and other educational and research institutions in 190 countries. A growing body of open access material is also accessible to the public. Over twenty-nine years, we have built critical digital infrastructure to support managing, making accessible, and preserving collections in ways that support research, teaching, and learning. We are continuing to invest in new areas for the future, including a new set of digital stewardship services that empower libraries to manage, preserve, and make their archives and special collections accessible through our platform and tools that leverage the latest technologies, including generative ai. In addition to program service revenue of $89,509,527 reported in part iii, line 4a, ithaka received grant revenue of $1,342,882 allocable to jstor reported on part viii, line 1f.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 83% 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 most voting board members are independent. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and the filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 81
- Transparency & Controls: 54
- Accountability: 94
- Sustainability: 64
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 82.1%; rating input score 82
- Program expense ratio: 91.4%; rating input score 91
- Fundraising efficiency: $14.43 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
- Grant itemization coverage: Scored; rating input score 0
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 90%; rating input score 90; 38th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 10.9%; rating input score 75; 75th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.35; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.48; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 6.3%; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 3.7% per year; rating input score 100; 28th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 4.4% per year; rating input score 100; 36th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 9% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 2 programs and campaigns described on the official site
- Where the money goes: 82.1% of revenue deployed · 91.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 9 of 10 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $102.5M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $647K · 31 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $2.4M reported
- Consistency: 34 of 34 current checks pass
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, and executive pay
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 24 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
- 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 0/100.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 50/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 10/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 38/100.