Society for American Archaeology

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
526046203
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-T 2025
Location
Washington, DC, USA
Phone
2027898200
Rating
76
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Professional Societies, Associations

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$3,036,641
Expenses
$2,751,804
Assets
$13,725,649
Liabilities
$1,197,507

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

Leadership & pay

17 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Christopher D Dore RPA (President)
  • Daniel Sandweiss PhD RPA (President (ended 4/25))
  • Oona Schmid (Executive Director (Ex-Officio))
  • Dawn M Jimenez (Deputy Executive Director)

Highest reported compensation

  • Oona Schmid (Executive Director (Ex-Officio)): $231,234 total reported compensation
  • Dawn M Jimenez (Deputy Executive Director): $189,841 total reported compensation
  • Carla Fernandez French (Manager, Meetings): $149,224 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

SAA empowers its members to understand humanity's past through ethically-based scientific and humanistic investigation, to promote preservation of archaeological resources and cultural heritage through support of legislation and education, to create collaboration between the profession and descendant communities, and to assist professional growth.

What it reported doing in 2025

Publications - the publications program provides an important benefit to SAA members by publishing scholarly journals, books from the SAA press, a full-color magazine, and other miscellaneous publications. As a member benefit, SAA members may choose one of now three journals: American antiquity, Latin American antiquity, or advances in archeological practice. American antiquity is devoted to the archaeology of the new world, and method and theory pertinent to the study of new world archaeology; Latin American antiquity is devoted to special reports on archaeology, prehistory, and ethno history from Latin America. Advances in archaeological practice is devoted to the practice of archaeology and solutions. All members receive the SAA archaeological record, published five times per year. This full-color magazine encompasses SAA business, thematic articles, and much more. The SAA press publishes books that relate to all fields of archaeological study, and primarily serve the needs of the SAA membership.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 72% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 88% 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and the filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 69
  • Transparency & Controls: 69
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 57
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 71.6%; rating input score 72
  • Program expense ratio: 83.4%; rating input score 83
  • Fundraising efficiency: $4.76 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: 2 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 25
    • Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
    • Requires narrative reports: Pass
    • Conducts field audits: Fail
    • May suspend future funding: Fail
    • Requires financial reports: Fail
    • Conducts site visits: Fail
    • Requires grant agreements: Fail
    • May require repayment: Fail
  • Grant itemization coverage: 82.7%; rating input score 83; 28th percentile among comparable filings
  • 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: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 9.4%; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.99; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.09; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 25.4%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 5% per year; rating input score 100; 36th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 2.9% per year; rating input score 100; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 6.1% per year; rating input score 100; 39th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 71.6% of revenue deployed · 83.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 5 filed program accomplishments · $2.3M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $231K · 17 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 36 of 37 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 16 filing years from 2010 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.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 14/100.
  • High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight: 6 of 8 not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 54/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 11/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Foreign grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 51/100.