Rockaway Film Festival

What it reported doing in 2024

The 7th annual rockaway film festival took place over the course of 9 days in august 2024 and presented more than 60 films from around the globe. Highlights included several New York, east coast, and world premieres of new films and restorations alongside special tributes, panelist conversations, and rare screenings. Every day of the festival included talks with featured directors, actors, and other crew members, moderated by esteemed filmmakers. In addition to film screenings, we presented 8 live music performances including sets by acclaimed musicians, including visiting musicians as well as local rockaway talents.in addition to presenting a special event each evening in our flagship outdoor venue, the arverne cinema, we transformed a neighboring warehouse into a secondary, indoor screening room the annex cinema. This set-up gave us the opportunity to expand our programming scope, and to build and present our first multi-channel installation. The festival included our first educational workshops, which we offered for free in partnership with rockaway artists.in addition to the 7th annual festival, we presented film and music at the arverne cinema from april through october of 2024. Many of our events were offered for free, including our annual juneteenth celebration with alfreda's cinema, and our annual earth day clean-up and screening with laru beya collective. All of our events were offered for free to children, teenagers, and our neighbors living in arverne.in 2024, rff's staff and board of directors invested in organizational capacity building to enable the growth of our scope of activities. In 2024, rff transitioned to a full-time organization and prioritized building new opportunities to connect with a larger portion of its target population of the entire rockaway peninsula, especially aiming to connect with harder to reach groups. We accomplished our goal of engaging with a larger and broader population of the rockaway community with our highest attended festival to date.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 35.6%; rating input score 36
• Program expense ratio: 66.9%; rating input score 67
• Fundraising efficiency: $28.11 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 67; 67th 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
  • 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: Missing
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 48.5%; rating input score 92; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.11; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 11.3%; rating input score 32; 32nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: Limited
• Revenue growth: 80.1% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 70.1% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings