Sinister Wisdom Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 943143264
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2018–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2024, Form 990-N 2017
- Location
- Dover, FL, USA
- Phone
- 8135025549
- Rating
- 74
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Printing, Publishing
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $180,815
- Expenses
- $141,154
- Assets
- $150,860
- Liabilities
- $3,220
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
16 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Julie Enszer (President)
People named in this filing
- Julie Enszer (President)
- Pelaya Arapakis (Secretary)
- Cheryl Clarke (Treasurer)
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 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Sinister Wisdom seeks to open, consider and advance the exploration of lesbian community issues, and works to create multicultural, multi-class lesbian space. The organization accomplishes it's mission by publishing a multicultural literary and art journal, and providing outreach and educational programs in support of building vibrant lesbian communities.
What it reported doing in 2024
In 2025, Sinister Wisdom convened the Lesbian Lives 2025 Conference in New York City of scholars, activists, and artists for networking and information sharing in support of outreach and education. Over 700 people were in attendance.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent revenue detail to tell how this nonprofit funds its work.
- 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 - The filed numbers largely add up and program spending has grown recently. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and liabilities are high compared with assets.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 52
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 66
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 47.4%; rating input score 47
- Program expense ratio: 60.7%; rating input score 61
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 21.9%; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.07; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 15.5% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 17.1% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 21.9% per year; rating input score 100; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 47.4% of revenue deployed · 60.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 2 filed program accomplishments · $86K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 16 people listed
- Consistency: 7 of 7 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 6 filing years from 2018 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- 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: Mission deployment rate scored 47/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 37/100.