Society for Mathematical Biology

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
844486353
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Rating
66
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Mathematics

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$233,730
Expenses
$156,132
Assets
$1,838,339
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

10 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Jane Heffernan (Vice President)
  • Reinhard Laubenbacher (President)

People named in this filing

  • Claus Kadelka (Treasurer)
  • Jane Heffernan (Vice President)
  • Brandilyn Stigler (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 Society for Mathematical Biology's mission is to promote scientific collaboration between the mathematical and biological communities.

What it reported doing in 2025

The Society publishes a highly regarded scientific journal, "The Bulletin of Mathematical Biology". There are 12 issues each year available both online and in paper editions. The Society pays the publisher for subscriptions for all members. The publisher remits royalty payments to the Society based on the income generated from the Bulletin. These royalty payments provide the Society with funds used to provide travel support for students participating in the Society's annual conference and other Mathematical Biology related meetings. The Society also uses some funds to provide honoraria to plenary speakers at the annual conference and support conference travel of its officers, board members, and presenters.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 99% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 41% for direct work, and 59% for grants.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and revenue comfortably covers expenses. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 54
  • Transparency & Controls: 86
  • Accountability: 58
  • Sustainability: 82
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 50.9%; rating input score 51
  • Program expense ratio: 76.5%; rating input score 77
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 90%; rating input score 90; 10th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 0 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Fail
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 33.2%; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 11.77; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 45.9% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -65.3% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 13.5% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 50.9% of revenue deployed · 76.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 0 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $119K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 10 people listed
  • Consistency: 17 of 18 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes grants
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 51/100.
  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 6 of 6 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.