Mizna

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
411913423
IRS 990 coverage
2015–2024
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Saint Paul, MN, USA
Phone
6127886920
Rating
84
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Arts, Culture, and Humanities N.E.C.
Affiliation
Islam

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$322,960
Expenses
$563,844
Assets
$449,627
Liabilities
$49,359

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

11 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Lana Salah Barkawi (Executive Director)

Highest reported compensation

  • Lana Salah Barkawi (Executive Director): $83,270 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Mizna is a critical platform for contemporary literature, art, film, and cultural programming centering the work of southwest asian and north african artists. For twenty years, we have sought to reflect the depth and multiplicity of our community and have been committed to being a space for arab, muslim, and other artists from the region to reclaim our narratives and engage audiences in meaningful and artistically excellent art.

What it reported doing in 2024

JOURNAL: Mizna: SWANA Lit + Art is an acclaimed biannual print publication with a history of connecting established and emerging authors with an international readership. In 2024, Mizna published the forty-sixth and forty-seventh issues of the literary journal "Mizna: SWANA Literature + Art," featuring 62 contributors. In 2024, the journal reached more than 4000 readers through subscriptions, sales, and library checkouts. In publication since 1999, Mizna remains a rare journal of Arab and Southwest Asian/North African literature. Mizna is a critical space for authors, both emerging and established, in which they have the creative freedom to explore themes and ideas that are real and relevant to them, outside of the cultural assumptions made by the broader American landscape. In 2024, Mizna also continued the online literary platform "Mizna Online." Featuring commissioned poetry, prose, criticism, reviews, and experimental multidisciplinary work, Mizna Online complements our biannual print publication with regular content that is free to read. Work on Mizna Online reflects on the urgent and current realities of the SWANA region and beyond. In 2024, thirty urgent pieces were published on Mizna Online, reaching more than 25,000 readers.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
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 - 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: 81
  • Transparency & Controls: 86
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 17
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 70.1%; rating input score 70
  • Fundraising efficiency: $3.92 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 26th 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • 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: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -74.6%; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.8; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.11; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 14.8%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 11.8% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 6.7% per year; rating input score 100; 61st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 21% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 7 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 2 operating locations identified
  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 70.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $395K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $83K · 11 people listed
  • Consistency: 30 of 31 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 9 filing years from 2015 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • 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: Fundraising efficiency scored 17/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 3/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 35/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 24/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 25/100.