Scientific Committee on Solar- Terrestrial Physics Scostep Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
842189268
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2019–2025
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2025
Location
Boulder, CO, USA
Phone
7202140801
Rating
84
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Professional Societies, Associations

Reported finances

Revenue
$98,308
Expenses
$154,237
Assets
$319,065

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

Leadership & pay

3 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • KAZUO SHIOKAWA (PRESIDENT)

People named in this filing

  • ODELE CODDINGTON (SECRETARY)
  • KAZUO SHIOKAWA (PRESIDENT)
  • BERND FUNKE (VICE PRESIDE)

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

To strengthen international science for the benefit of society. Scostep runs international interdisciplinary scientific programs and promotes solar-terrestrial physics research by providing the necessary scientific framework for international collaboration and dissemination of the derived scientific knowledge in collaboration with other international science council bodies. Scostep is a permanent observer at the united nations committee on the peaceful uses of outer space (uncopuos).

What it reported doing in 2025

Capacity building - under capacity building, scostep disseminates knowledge gained from solar terrestrial research to the public and students using space science comic books, scostep newsletters, and other media. Scostep has partnered with other international bodies such as the international space weather initiative (iswi) and cospar to train university students to become next generation scientists via international space science schools and workshops consisting of lectures and hands-on activities. Scostep provides support for organizing schools for capacity building of students and young scientists in solar-terrestrial physics via capacity building grants. Scostep also conducts timely international symposia in various parts of the world, including the quadrennial solar terrestrial physics (stp) symposia since 1966. Scostep is further holding online lectures for capacity building of students and young scientists. These online lectures will provide both basic background and an introduction to the latest scientific topics of solar-terrestrial physics to students and young scientists of all countries. See the link capacity building lectures for more information. Scientific programs - scostep has been running long-term international interdisciplinary scientific programs in solar-terrestrial physics since 1966. The current program is course (cross-scale coupling processes in the solar-terrestrial system) is the 2026-2030 science program for scostep. The previous program, presto (predictability of the variable solar-terrestrial coupling) ran from 2021 to 2025 and designed to improve the predictability of energy flow in the integrated sun-earth system on times scales from a few hours to centuries through promoting international collaborative efforts. Scostep visiting scholar (svs) - to provide training to graduate students from all countries in established laboratories of solar-terrestrial physics for periods of 1 to 3 months. Scostep will provide the airfare, while the hosting lab will provide living expenses (lodging, meals, ground transportation, visa fees and other incidentals). In 2025, scostep awarded 21 svs grants. While the majority of the svs travel occurred in 2025, a handful are e just being scheduled now in spring 2026.

Operating model

Revenue model
Membership-supported. 95% of the money available for current operations came from membership dues.
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 assets have declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 91
  • Transparency & Controls: 82
  • Sustainability: 31
  • Growth: 80

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 75.1%; rating input score 75

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Limited

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -56.9%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.07; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 27% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 7.9% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -0.2% per year; rating input score 0; 37th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 75.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $116K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 3 people listed
  • Consistency: 6 of 6 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 2 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 7 filing years from 2019 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.

  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 11/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.