SIP Forum LLC

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
550891386
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2009
Location
North Andover, MA, USA
Phone
9788240111
Rating
67
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Chambers of Commerce & Business Leagues

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$515,849
Expenses
$501,699
Assets
$851,663
Liabilities
$247,620

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

Leadership & pay

15 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • Marc Robins (Mnging Director): $259,200 total reported compensation
  • Richard Shockey (Chairman): $24,000 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

The SIP Forum is organized for the purpose of promoting the spread and adoption of a telecommunications signaling protocol known as Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

What it reported doing in 2025

Test Event Working Group (TEWG) - This is chartered to coordinate the holding of large-scale interoperability test events. These events, held multiple times per year at locations around the world, are open to any company, individual, or institution that wishes to attend and bring a product or service that incorporates SIP signaling to test with other products that incorporate SIP with the goal of increasing Inter-operability among vendors' products or services.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 69% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 63
  • Transparency & Controls: 71
  • Accountability: 68
  • Sustainability: 38
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 69.6%; rating input score 70
  • Program expense ratio: 71.5%; rating input score 72
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Pass
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 2 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 22
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 2.7%; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.7; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.29; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 56.4%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 11.8% per year; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 3.9% per year; rating input score 100; 31st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 7.1% per year; rating input score 100; 44th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 69.6% of revenue deployed · 71.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 14 of 14 board members independent · 2 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $359K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $259K · 15 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 19 of 19 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes executive pay
  • Filing history: 16 filing years from 2010 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 6 of 8 not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 39/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 59/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 1/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 20/100.