Knowledge Rhythm & Understanding Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
863308669
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2023–2025
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2022
Location
Birmingham, AL, USA
Phone
2054226007
Rating
89
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Specialized Education Institutions

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$65,722
Expenses
$47,588
Assets
$117,968
Liabilities
$0

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

4 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Ali Shaheed McCambry (Executive Director)

People named in this filing

  • Ali Shaheed McCambry (Executive Director)
  • Jon Malone (Director)
  • Dante Givens (Director)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Knowledge Rhythm and Understanding (KRU) is an educational initiative created to bring awareness to the history and artistic components of hip hop and its culture.

What it reported doing in 2025

1 - Workshops held to teach the four core elements of hip hop - 22 held, serving 1,233 people; 2 - Educational events and demonstrations of hip hop and its artistic elements - 7 held serving 1,435 people; 3 - T shirt sales designed & printed to promote the positivity and social benefits of KRU & its partners - 8 shirts designed, printed & sold to support causes of seven community partners.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 100% 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

STRONG - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 80
  • Transparency & Controls: 100
  • Sustainability: 72
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 70.3%; rating input score 70
  • Program expense ratio: 97.1%; rating input score 97

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 27.6%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.48; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 60.6% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 2% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 17.7% per year; rating input score 100; 82nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 70.3% of revenue deployed · 97.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $46K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 4 people listed
  • Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • 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.

  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.