Sead Project

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
474088420
IRS 990 coverage
2018–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2017
Location
Minneapolis, MN, USA
Phone
6126558692
Rating
79
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Public, Society Benefit N.E.C.

Reported finances

Revenue
$245,464
Expenses
$425,412
Assets
$155,213
Liabilities
$836

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • KAYSONE SYONESA SCHNEIDER (CO-DIRECTOR): $75,519 total reported compensation
  • JESSICA ECKERSTORFER (CO-DIRECTOR): $71,227 total reported compensation
  • JUANITA VANG (CO-DIRECTOR): $15,180 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The sead project (southeast asian diaspora) is a community organization on a mission to be an accessible creative hub that provides streamlined workshops and tools to engage and share knowledge in khmer, hmong, lao, vietnamese, and other southeast asian diaspora communities.

What it reported doing in 2024

Planting seads - the year 2025 marked 50 years since the end of the vietnam war, the end of the secret war in laos, and the beginning of the khmer rouge takeover in cambodia - all deeply significant turning points of our vast community's stories. In honor of this anniversary, starting in 2025 sead hosted a series of programming to commemorate this landmark occasion and honor the stories, resilience, and cultrual legacies of our community. We started to gather, preserve, and elevate the stories of our community through a multi-leveled project of art and storytelling that included the completion of a mobile art installation and the beginning of our storytelling collections of sea stories. We worked with 5 art installation artists and cultural advisors to design and build the abundance altar, a mobile centerpiece of our 50th programming. The abundance altar was a gathering point for our storytelling collections where community members were invited to contribute photos, mementos, and offerings that honor the people and histories that shaped us. In summer of 2025, we launched our story collections and showcased our mobile altar art installation at various community events including cosa fest in brooklyn center and little mekong night markets in st. Paul.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 98% 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.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of total spending goes to programs and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 74
  • Transparency & Controls: 86
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 14
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 97.5%; rating input score 97
  • Program expense ratio: 56.1%; rating input score 56
  • Fundraising efficiency: $3.39 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 19th 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: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -73.3%; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.36; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 38.1%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 10.4% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 3.7% per year; rating input score 100; 45th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 10.6% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 97.5% of revenue deployed · 56.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $239K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $76K · 9 people listed
  • Consistency: 28 of 29 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 7 filing years from 2018 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 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.

  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 56/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 15/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 3/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 19/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Schedule G fundraiser detail did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 7/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 49/100.