National Spectrum Consortium
Legal name: National Spectrum Consortium Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 881444289
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2022–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2021
- Location
- Washington, DC, USA
- Phone
- 2023659219
- Rating
- 76
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Alliance/Advocacy
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $212,726,410
- Expenses
- $212,035,375
- Assets
- $34,924,537
- Liabilities
- $28,515,677
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
15 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JOSEPH KOCHAN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SECRETARY)
Highest reported compensation
- JOSEPH KOCHAN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SECRETARY): $435,251 total reported compensation
- JOHN JADHON (COO & GENERAL COUNSEL): $192,000 total reported compensation
- NANCY JEMISON (TREASURER): $82,699 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The National Spectrum Consortium (NSC) is a mission-driven nonprofit focused on advanced spectrum and wireless technology development in the US.
What it reported doing in 2024
Under a department of defense (dod) spectrum forward other transaction agreement (ota), nsc subcontracted awards to 24 consortium members. This ota enables a partnership through which government and nsc members collaborate to research and develop electromagnetic spectrum-related and spectrum-dependent technologies through prototype and development phases.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 99% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- 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. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 88
- Transparency & Controls: 60
- Accountability: 82
- Sustainability: 29
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 99.2%; rating input score 99
- Program expense ratio: 99.6%; rating input score 100
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Missing
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 5 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 56
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 0.3%; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.16; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.82; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0.3%; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 128.5% per year; rating input score 100; 100th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 127.8% per year; rating input score 100; 100th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 85.9% per year; rating input score 100; 100th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 2 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 99.2% of revenue deployed · 99.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 5 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $211.1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $435K · 15 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $109.9M reported
- Consistency: 27 of 27 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes executive pay
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2022 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 3 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 — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 8 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 33/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 5/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 17/100.