Katharsis Media

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
833749311
IRS 990 coverage
2023–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2022, Form 990-N 2021
Location
Albuquerque, NM, USA
Phone
5055855153
Rating
77
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Performing Arts Organizations

Reported finances

Revenue
$251,615
Expenses
$306,846
Assets
$13,763
Liabilities
$10,600

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

Leadership & pay

6 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Candice Neu (President of the Board / Executive Director)
  • Nicole Dodson-Sands (Vice President of the Board)

Highest reported compensation

  • Candice Neu (President of the Board / Executive Director): $64,943 total reported compensation
  • Amanda Hoefler (Secretary of the Board): $9,530 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Katharsis Media empowers communities through storytelling by advancing education, workforce development, and access in film and television. The organization provides hands-on training, apprenticeships, and community broadcast programming to create sustainable industry pathways for emerging artists and creators.

What it reported doing in 2024

Katharsis Media supported local artists and creative professionals through artist residencies, emergency assistance, affordable creative infrastructure, and paid mentorship opportunities. Through the UETF Residency Resiliency Program in partnership with the City of Albuquerque, the organization hosted 12 artists in residence and distributed milestone-based financial support for artistic projects. Katharsis Media also operated the New Mexico Film Emergency Fund, providing emergency financial assistance for filmmakers and creative professionals experiencing hardship through direct vendor payments. Additionally, the organization expanded access to professional creative space and resources through its artist support initiatives and studio infrastructure. Katharsis Media also secured Creative Industries Division funding to expand affordable creative infrastructure through the development of Hot Sets, a modular production environment designed to support artists, workforce training, and community film and television productions. Planning and early implementation began during FY2025, with full buildout occurring in the following fiscal year. NOTE: Through the UETF Residency Resiliency Program in partnership with the City of Albuquerque, Katharsis Media continued administering milestone-based support to artists whose projects were funded through a prior-year grant award, distributing payments as artists completed project benchmarks during FY2025, which is why our expenses greatly outweigh our revenue for this program.

Operating model

Revenue model
Other-operating. 96% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 88% 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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 85
  • Transparency & Controls: 93
  • Accountability: 49
  • Sustainability: 10
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 88.8%; rating input score 89
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 60%; rating input score 60; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 3 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • 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: -22%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.04; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.77; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 24.3%; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 149.3% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 29.4% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 23.5% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 88.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 3 of 5 board members independent · 3 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $272K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $65K · 6 people listed
  • Consistency: 43 of 43 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes grants
  • Filing history: 2 filing years from 2023 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
  • 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 13/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 4/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 7/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 15/100.