Kizuna Foundation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 994063633
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2025–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2024
- Location
- Scottsdale, AZ, USA
- Phone
- 8476242060
- Rating
- 58
- Verdict
- MIXED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Eye Diseases, Blindness & Vision Impairments Research
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $260,821
- Expenses
- $10,010
- Assets
- $250,892
- Liabilities
- $81
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
7 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- STEVEN RINGEL (PRESIDENT)
People named in this filing
- KEN BAHK (DIRECTOR)
- DAVID BELLAIRE (DIRECTOR)
- CLYDE KOFMAN (TREASURER)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The mission is to fund medical/scientific reasearch into and development of a therapy to arrest progressive vision loss experienced by people who have a specific form of retinitis pigmintosa caused by an abnormality in the kiz gene.
What it reported doing in 2025
Fundraising to financially support research to develop a treatment for kiz gene mediated blindess.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 99% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- 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
MIXED - 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 some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 25
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 82
- Sustainability: 89
- Growth: NotEnoughData
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 3.2%; rating input score 3
- Program expense ratio: 69.1%; rating input score 69
- 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: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 57
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 96.2%; rating input score 99; 99th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 25.06; rating input score 97; 97th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: Limited
- Asset growth: Limited
Details
- Where the money goes: 3.2% of revenue deployed · 69.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 4 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $7K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 7 people listed
- Consistency: 18 of 18 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- 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.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 3/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 52/100.