Puente News Collaborative

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
873203011
IRS 990 coverage
2025–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2024
Location
El Paso, TX, USA
Phone
9155334020
Rating
45
Verdict
MIXED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Media, Communications Organizations

Reported finances

Revenue
$250,010
Expenses
$25,028
Assets
$229,132
Liabilities
$4,150

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

Leadership & pay

3 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • Richard E Pearson (Director/Pres.): $464,768 total reported compensation
  • Kathrin Berg (Director/VP): $239,356 total reported compensation
  • Deborah Zuloaga (Dir/Sec./Treas): $119,564 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Provide support and resources for local journalism in far West Texas, southern New Mexico and northern Chihuahua, Mexico (collectively, the "Borderplex Region").

What it reported doing in 2025

In order to address the alarming decline of news outlets along the U.S.-Mexico Border, under the fiscal sponsorship of the El Paso Community Foundation, the Puente News Collaborative is a network of newsrooms and journalists working as trusted sources for stories, reports, and commentary. This innovative effort provides high-quality, fact-based news and information on both sides of the El Paso-Ciudad Jurez border. Puente News Collaborative is dedicated to strengthening local news along the U.S.-Mexico border. In 2025: Seven students from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York (CUNY) participated in a five-day reporting trip to El Paso. Students met with elected officials, business leaders, immigration and health non-profit leaders, and others. The visit resulted in 10 published stories, including: For borderland cattle ranchers, a trade war with Mexico adds to the list of troubles published by several news outlets. Puente News Collaborative hosted a presentation for 70 attendees titled Bridging Local News Gap, Borderland News and Information Ecosystem. In addition, recognized journalist Steve Padilla provided a writing workshop to more than 30 individuals. A 12-member Puente News Collaborative advisory board was established. The advisory board is comprised of a dozen reporters, editors, and members from the academic field (the dean of the CUNY journalism school) to national journalism organizations (ProPublica, NPR); some hail from the border and Texas, while others care deeply about journalism and maintaining its viability. With more than 25 media partners, Puente News Collaborative published 30 stories.

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

MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up and revenue comfortably covers expenses. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of voting board members are independent.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 32
  • Transparency & Controls: 65
  • Accountability: 31
  • Sustainability: 77
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 8.4%; rating input score 8
  • Program expense ratio: 83.7%; rating input score 84
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th 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: 0%; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Fail
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 90%; rating input score 99; 99th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 9.16; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 828.6%; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: 120% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 120% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 8.4% of revenue deployed · 83.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 0 of 3 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $21K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $465K · 3 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 14 of 14 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • 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 8/100.
  • High — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 0/100.
  • High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 35/100.