Redtone Records
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 831901032
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2019–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2020
- Location
- East Palo Alto, CA, USA
- Phone
- 6509062464
- Rating
- 73
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Music
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $592,631
- Expenses
- $381,240
- Assets
- $144,660
- Liabilities
- $21,634
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
3 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- JUSTIN PHIPPS (ED/PRES/BOAR): $33,950 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Redtone records is as a nonprofit, community-based record label and recording studio that provides free, professional music and video production to cultural artists with positive messages. We have a specific focus on preserving and promoting various forms of traditional and roots music from around the world. Additionally we will be conducting regular youth songwriting competitions, incentivizing positive lyrical content from young, aspiring, community artists. Our activities include: identifying and recruiting artists, both locally and internationally; subsidizing travel and lodging expenses for artist residencies when applicable; operating a community-based recording studio; producing music and video; hosting and promoting concerts, festivals and similar activities; pursuing song placements in tv, film, advertising, etc.; marketing and promotion of redtone artists; submitting redtone productions to major artists for possible program revenue to fund redtone activities. Redtone's missio
What it reported doing in 2024
2024 was mostly a year of sustaining ongoing support for the artists weve been working with the past few years. We produced tiffanis second redtone album while also sponsoring and co-producing a life-sustaining practices fellowship she created. Part of this fellowship included the creation of a podcast, recorded in our studio, focused on black health and wellness and featuring redtone music. We released effie zilchs 4th album, multitudes, a celebration of the sounds and spirit of a rich bay area musical legacy going back to san franciscos golden age of the counterculture movement. We released kiazi malongas second album, zu dia ngoma, with some singles having already been released in late 2023. Over this same period of time, kiazi and his musical mentor traveled extensively throughout congo- brazzaville, finding singers and musicians often in more remote communities and bringing them into the city to record their traditional music. Kiazi brought these recordings to our studio where we began organizing and mixing the recordings to produce a full album that will present a wide range of traditional musical styles from various congolese ethnic and language groups. Miko marks saw continued success as a touring artist and redtone ambassador. Highlights include: a 3-month tour with the trailblazing women of country revue; her first booking at stagecoach music festival, the largest ticketed country/americana festival in the world; and her first booking at san franciscos own hardly strictly bluegrass, one of the largest free festivals in the world, drawing hundreds of thousands of attendees. She also expanded her international touring to include several large festivals in canada. 2024 was the first year that redtones tour support yielded more profit than loss, a positive sign as we continue to explore our best strategies for sustainability. It even prompted miko to become the first redtone artist to donate some of her own proceeds back into the redtone organization with a generous 10k gift. We closed out the year with our first-ever fundraising house concert. The concert was hosted by a friend and new supporter of redtone at his home in palo alto. It was an amazing night with performances by each artist and a strong presentation of what we do and why we do it. We raised 35k at the event and are encouraged to create an ongoing series throughout the bay area.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 71% 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of total spending goes to programs. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 67
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 60
- Sustainability: 55
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 56.2%; rating input score 56
- Program expense ratio: 87.3%; rating input score 87
- Fundraising efficiency: $27.51 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 66.7%; rating input score 67; 14th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 35.7%; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.38; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.15; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 8.9%; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 27% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 30.7% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -0.9% per year; rating input score 0; 15th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 56.2% of revenue deployed · 87.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 2 of 3 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $333K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $34K · 3 people listed
- Consistency: 25 of 25 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2019 to 2024
- 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.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 56/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 18/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 36/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 40/100.