Middle Ear Project

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
372143472
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2024–2025
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2025
Location
Pasadena, CA, USA
Phone
3105718337
Rating
55
Verdict
MIXED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Arts, Cultural Organizations - Multipurpose

Reported finances

Revenue
$35,716
Expenses
$31,872
Assets
$10,143
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

7 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Cassia Streb (President)

People named in this filing

  • Cassia Streb (President)
  • Jennifer Bewerse (Treasurer)
  • Catherine Yun (Secretary)

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

Organization's primary exempt purpose: Middle Ear Project advances the public's knowledge and literacy about contemporary arts and culture by researching, contextualizing, and presenting music, visual and performing arts at online and in-person cultural events that are open to the public.

What it reported doing in 2025

Community Film Screening: produced 3 screening event2 that were free to the general public. Events were volunteer run. 101 individuals benefitted, including 36 performing and film artists.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 69% 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 program spending has grown recently. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 30
  • Transparency & Controls: 82
  • Sustainability: 44
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 28.8%; rating input score 29
  • Program expense ratio: 32.1%; rating input score 32

Transparency & Controls

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

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 10.8%; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.32; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 62.1%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 104.1% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 113.4% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 46.8% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 28.8% of revenue deployed · 32.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $10K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 7 people listed
  • Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 2 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 2 filing years from 2024 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.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 29/100.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 32/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 24/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 2/100.