San Jose Community Media Access Corporation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 262041299
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2014–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Location
- San Jose, CA, USA
- Phone
- 4082958815
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Telecommunications
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $2,927,316
- Expenses
- $3,739,949
- Assets
- $13,909,497
- Liabilities
- $3,458,141
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
12 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- CHAD A JOHNSTON (CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- CHAD A JOHNSTON (CEO): $201,579 total reported compensation
- BREANNA GILBERT (COO): $171,511 total reported compensation
- JUSTIN COWGILL (CTO): $161,986 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Our mission is to inspire, educate, and connect san jose communities, using media to foster civic engagement.we fulfill our mission by providing the training, tools, and platforms that allow diverse and often underrepresented communities to tell their stories and express their views through digital media. We operate a community media center, open san jose, which features 18,000 square feet of office space, gallery and public spaces, a large studio, and multiple spaces that are fully equipped with technology and designed to be used for community, corporate, and private events, live and hybrid meetings, podcast and media recording, trainings, and more.
What it reported doing in 2024
The organization is responsible for operating one or more community media centers (cmc). The organization is also responsible for operating the public and educational access channels and distributing community media content on the comcast system. The organization provides training on video/computer techniques necessary to create media that can be cablecast over the local public and educational access, streamed on the internet, or made available on demand. The organization provides all of the necessary support services that will permit the cmc and the public and educational access channels to function, including broadcast of programming/content, equipment maintenance, developing and managing volunteers, outreach, promotion and public relations.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 69% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 88
- Transparency & Controls: 79
- Accountability: 91
- Sustainability: 32
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 84.8%; rating input score 85
- Fundraising efficiency: $10.56 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Pass
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- 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: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- 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: -27.8%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.72; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.25; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 17.4%; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 6.3% per year; rating input score 100; 47th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 0.2% per year; rating input score 100; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 7.5% per year; rating input score 100; 47th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 84.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $3.2M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $202K · 12 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 33 of 33 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 10 filing years from 2014 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 4 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 39/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 5/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 9 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 15/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 39/100.