Public Access Corp of the District of Columbia

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
521509144
IRS 990 coverage
2009–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Washington, DC, USA
Rating
80
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,427,760
Expenses
$2,877,227
Assets
$10,568,583
Liabilities
$1,052,028

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

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Nantz Rickard (President and CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • Nantz Rickard (President and CEO): $237,794 total reported compensation
  • Benjamin Kutner (Director of Development): $189,878 total reported compensation
  • Michelle Worthington (Chief Financial & Admin Officer): $177,607 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Provide fair and equitable opportunities for community residents and organizations to create non-commercial television programs and telecast them on cable channels, free of censorship or editorial control. Provide media education. Create and telecast community programming.

What it reported doing in 2024

Education: Participants received a total of 1,446 hours of education, including students from non-profit organizations, DCTVs membership, the general public, and interns. Programming: The cable providers who fund DCTV have granted it exclusive use and programming control of eight public access channels on which DCTV schedules and transmits community programming, most of which is produced and provided by DCTV members.Use of the channels is collectively valued at $95,532,400 based on a per subscriber valuation for Public, Educational and Government(PEG)channel usage.DCTV fulfills its mission to transmit community programming on the cable systems in the District of Columbia by supporting, scheduling and telecasting programming at no charge to DCTV members, and by creating, producing and telecasting DCTVs original locally focused programs.DCTVs volunteers contributed thousands of hours creating and providing the programming telecast on DCTVs 8 cable television channels.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 79% 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

STRONG - 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 fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 87
  • Transparency & Controls: 65
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 34
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 84.4%; rating input score 84
  • Fundraising efficiency: $8.83 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 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 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -18.5%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.67; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.1; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 21%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 2.8% per year; rating input score 100; 26th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 0.6% per year; rating input score 100; 14th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 4.9% per year; rating input score 100; 34th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 84.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $2.4M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $238K · 9 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $166K reported
  • Consistency: 29 of 29 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 16 filing years from 2009 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.

Key Signals

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

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 34/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 7/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Document-retention policy not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 11/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 59/100.