Latino Media Collaborative

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
854098339
IRS 990 coverage
2021–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-T 2025
Location
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Phone
3238134382
Rating
78
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Media, Communications Organizations

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,324,039
Expenses
$2,028,679
Assets
$714,666
Liabilities
$206,929

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

Leadership & pay

7 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • ARTURO CARMONA (President)

Highest reported compensation

  • ARTURO CARMONA (President): $169,750 total reported compensation
  • ESPERANZA GUEVARA (Managing Drectr): $141,227 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Latino Media Collaborative's mission is to leverage the power of Latino and community news media to impact policy, change narratives, and promote civic engagement, while also supporting advancement of the sector through capacity building, research, and advocacy. The Organization envisions a future where Latino media thrives across the Southwest, challenges the dominant narrative using a Letino lens, and provides high quality, culturally responsive content that promotes civic engagement.

What it reported doing in 2025

Outreach and education campaignslatino media collaborative develops high-impact media and outreach campaigns in partnership with the latino media sector to advance an informed and highly engaged latino community and to increase public and political will for policies that promote diversity, inclusion, and racial equity with a major focus last year on the stop the hate initiative. We work with several partners within our network of over 25 print, digital, and broadcast latino media outlets - including a combination of smaller, hyperlocal outlets, as well as statewide and national partners. Our smaller, ethic media outlets include la nueva voz and hispanic la, llc (greater los angeles), el popular and vida en el valle (central valley), el latino (san diego), vida newspaper (ventura county), el informador del valle (coachella / inland empire), and el tmpano and alianza news (san francisco bay area), among others. Our statewide and national partners include the radio bilingue, spanish broadcasting system, nbc/telemundo, and univision. These partners have strength in original content creation in english and / or spanish across multiple platforms, including digital and traditional media and broadcast television and radio. The majority of partner outlets serve latino/latina/latinx, immigrant and refugee, and limited english proficient (lep) communities. Combined, our partners have an estimated reach of over 3 million in print, radio, tv, and online impressions.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 86% 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

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 83
  • Transparency & Controls: 74
  • Accountability: 86
  • Sustainability: 11
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 78%; rating input score 78
  • Fundraising efficiency: $5.22 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • 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: 6 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 67
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • 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: -53.2%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.35; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.29; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 15.3%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 42.1% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 16.4% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 6.9% per year; rating input score 100; 43rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 78% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 6 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $1.6M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $170K · 7 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2021 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 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.
  • 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: Fundraising efficiency scored 17/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 2/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 18/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 20/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 24/100.