Los Angeles Jazz Institute
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 330920275
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2021–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2025
- Location
- Escondido, CA, USA
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Performing Arts Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $87,474
- Expenses
- $86,149
- Assets
- $20,094
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
3 people listed
People named in this filing
- Kenneth Poston (Director)
- Eric Fankhauser (Archivist)
- Lori Poston (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-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Preservation and Promotion of Jazz Music through educational activities live concerts and events and maintains a large archive
What it reported doing in 2025
Archive continued to move to a larger more accessible location
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
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 62
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 35
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 62.3%; rating input score 62
- Program expense ratio: 63.2%; rating input score 63
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: 1.5%; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.23; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 18.7% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 25.3% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 33.1% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 62.3% of revenue deployed · 63.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 2 filed program accomplishments · $54K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 3 people listed
- Consistency: 6 of 6 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 2 filing years from 2021 to 2025
- 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.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 47/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 20/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: California registration: this organization is not authorized to operate as a charity in California.