Silent Cinema Presentations Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
134819441
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2018–2025
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2017
Location
New York, NY, USA
Phone
2125955655
Rating
88
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Film, Video

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$36,291
Expenses
$41,253
Assets
$1,057
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

11 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Robert Arkus (President of the Board)

People named in this filing

  • Ben Model (Producer Accompanist)
  • Steve Massa (Film Historian)
  • Marlene Weisman Abadi (Graphic Designer)

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

We recreate the experience of watching silent comedies with live musical accompaniment for audiences of a wide variety of people: seniors, children and everyone in between.

What it reported doing in 2025

In 2025 we were no longer able to produce our show at the New York Library for the Performing Arts because the New York Public Library decided their programming had to be internally generated. We are an external group so we had to find a new venue for our Fall, Winter and Spring performances. We were fortunate to rent the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater at Symphony Space at a non profit cost and so we continued showing silent comedies with live musical accompanment as we have for 29 years.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 90% 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

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 total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 100
  • Transparency & Controls: 82
  • Sustainability: 23
  • Growth: 80

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

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

Transparency & Controls

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

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -13.7%; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.03; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 53.6%; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 15% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 4.3% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -2.7% per year; rating input score 0; 29th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $41K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 11 people listed
  • Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 2 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 8 filing years from 2018 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 5 filed money-flow records
  • 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 26/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 8/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 3/100.