Semio Community

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
932156692
IRS 990 coverage
2024–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2023
Location
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Phone
6186962600
Rating
76
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Engineering and Technology

Reported finances

Revenue
$901,676
Expenses
$1,080,978
Assets
$7,522
Liabilities
$163,980

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

Leadership & pay

2 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • ROSS MEAD (PRESIDENT)

People named in this filing

  • ROSS MEAD (PRESIDENT)
  • TODD TERRAZAS (SECRETARY)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The organization's mission is to support the advancement of human-robot interaction (hri) research by promoting community-developed hardware, software, and data, and fostering reproducible, replicable, and generalizable science within the field. We actively encourage multidisciplinary collaboration among academia, industry, and the public to drive innovation, ethical practices, and the widespread adoption of human- centered robotics technologies. The organization's most signification activities are (1) developing open robot hardware and software; (2) conducting robot experimental studies and analyses; (3) establishing robot datasets, standards, and benchmarks; (4) training for human-centered robot design; and (5) organizing and supporting community events. To foster collaboration between academia, industry, and the public sector.

What it reported doing in 2025

Community software: the organization is conducting three broad software development and integration efforts in support of the quori project: (1) enhancing web-based documentation and community portal; (2) enhancing core robot autonomy software, and (3) enhancing social hri software.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 100% 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 voting board members are independent and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 87
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 53
  • Sustainability: 13
  • Growth: 40

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 93%; rating input score 93
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

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: 50%; rating input score 50; 14th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 4 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 57
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -19.9%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.01; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 21.8; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -39% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 53.6% per year; rating input score 100; 96th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -41% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 93% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 1 of 2 board members independent · 4 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $1M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 2 people listed
  • Highest-paid contractors: 3 contractors listed · $1.4M reported
  • Consistency: 18 of 18 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 2 filing years from 2024 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.

  • Review — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 50/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 6 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 7/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 1/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 0/100.