Kantara Initiative Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
811226244
IRS 990 coverage
2016–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Manassas, VA, USA
Phone
5714758895
Rating
32
Verdict
REVIEW
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Chambers of Commerce & Business Leagues

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$628,020
Expenses
$832,211
Assets
$319,211
Liabilities
$339,477

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

Leadership & pay

12 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Kay Chopard (Executive Director)

Highest reported compensation

  • Kay Chopard (Executive Director): $171,886 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Kantara Initiative is a trust framework provider since 2010 See Schedule O for continuation.

What it reported doing in 2024

Kantara Initiative provides strategic vision and real world innovation for the digital identity transformation. Developing initiatives including: Deepfakes and IDV; Privacy Enhancing Mobile Credentials; User Managed Access; Resilient Identifiers for Underserved Populations; and Anchored Notification and Consent Receipt. Kantara Initiative also maintains the Identity Assurance Trust Framework (IAF) which underpins the assurance program providing third party conformance audits for NIST standard 800-63.3 for the federal Digital Identity Guidelines. The IAF is kept current by the Identity Assurance Work Group. Kantara Initiative develops innovations to solve real world problems for the identity based digital transformation. While connections to digital services and technologies grow, data generated by those connections is a challenge to manage. In the landscape of identity, security, and access technology and policy, varying national approaches and schemes exist. Governments and industry are connecting more and more to leverage their strengths for provision of services. This is the world of borderless IDM, where governments and industry seek to harmonize. Kantara Initiative develops assurance and interoperability programs to support the trust layer of online transactions. Kantara Initiative provides global leadership ensuring that diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) are part of all digital identity solutions and systems. Kantaras DEIA initiative works to establish a uniform terminology regarding DEIA requirements, identifies the return on investment for solution providers to incorporate important DEIA components in their products, and ensures that requirements for DEIA are easy to understand yet robust enough to provide access to service for everyone. Kantara Initiative also runs the third-party conformance assessment program in the US for the NIST 800-63 and also provides certification of requirements for the United Kingdom Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework (DIATF). Kantara Initiative provides educational presentations at digital identity conferences, to members of the Administration, and federal and state agencies on request.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 100% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
Distribution model
Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.

The verdict

REVIEW - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. 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: 0
  • Transparency & Controls: 60
  • Accountability: 69
  • Sustainability: 10
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 0%; rating input score 0
  • Program expense ratio: 0%; rating input score 0
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Missing
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 2 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 25
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -32.5%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.38; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 1.06; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 20.7%; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: -0.6% per year; rating input score 0; 13th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -1.3% per year; rating input score 0; 14th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 0% of revenue deployed · 0% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 2 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment
  • Leadership: top reported pay $172K · 12 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 10 of 11 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes executive pay
  • Filing history: 8 filing years from 2016 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.
  • 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 0/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 0/100.
  • High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 6 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 5/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Functional expense sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 18/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 5/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 14/100.