Riverside Astronomical Society Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 953801193
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2012–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025
- Location
- Riverside, CA, USA
- Phone
- 9512557759
- Rating
- 89
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $87,509
- Expenses
- $89,917
- Assets
- $281,950
- Liabilities
- $500
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Rick Debus (President)
- Mark Harrington (Vice President)
People named in this filing
- Rick Debus (President)
- Bill Vining (Treasurer)
- Alex McConahay (Chairman)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
1. Maintain and operate a society for the exchange and teaching of astronomical information.2. Popularize interest in astronomy and telescopes amongst its members and the general public.
What it reported doing in 2025
Hosted public meetings with speakers on astronomical subjects, hosted public star parties showing astronomical objects, went to schools and other nonprofit entities to give lectures and star parties, published a monthly newsletter with astronomical information, maintained an observing site in a dark sky environment for the public and members to come to and observe faint astronomical objects through individual and society telescopes.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent revenue detail to tell how this nonprofit funds its work.
- 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. Expenses are high relative to revenue and liabilities are high compared with assets.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 97
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 49
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 98.4%; rating input score 98
- Program expense ratio: 95.8%; rating input score 96
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -2.8%; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.14; rating input score 75; 75th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 3.3% per year; rating input score 100; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 5.7% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 4.9% per year; rating input score 100; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 98.4% of revenue deployed · 95.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $86K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 7 of 7 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2012 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- 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.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 37/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 29/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: California registration: this organization is not authorized to operate as a charity in California.