Society for Scientific Exploration
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 541191441
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2012–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2018, Form 990-EZ 2025
- Location
- Stillwater, OK, USA
- Phone
- 4057445250
- Rating
- 66
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $87,348
- Expenses
- $56,333
- Assets
- $57,813
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
9 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JAMES HOURAN PHD (President)
- GARRET MODDEL PHD (Vice President)
People named in this filing
- JAMES HOURAN PHD (President)
- MARK URBAN-LURAIN PHD (Secretary)
- DAQING PIAO PHD (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 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Research and education
What it reported doing in 2025
Publication of the peer review journal journal of scientific exploration. Provides members and public the latest research and information on scientific anomalies.
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 a large share of total spending goes to programs. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and program spending has declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 60
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 60
- Growth: 0
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 49.7%; rating input score 50
- Program expense ratio: 77.1%; rating input score 77
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 35.5%; rating input score 83; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.03; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -5.9% per year; rating input score 0; 34th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -5% per year; rating input score 0; 34th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -4.8% per year; rating input score 0; 25th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 49.7% of revenue deployed · 77.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 4 filed program accomplishments · $43K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 9 people listed
- Consistency: 6 of 6 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 12 filing years from 2012 to 2025
- 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.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 50/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 48/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.