Spie

Legal name: Society of Photo Optical Instrumentation Engineers

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
952142678
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2025
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-T 2025
Location
Bellingham, WA, USA
Phone
+1 360 676 3290
Rating
75
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$64,378,785
Expenses
$54,680,672
Assets
$166,653,304
Liabilities
$37,764,946

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

Leadership & pay

35 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Kent Rochford (Chief Executive Officer)
  • Julie L Bentley (President-Elect)
  • Peter de Groot (President)
  • Cather Simpson (Vice President)
  • Jennifer Barton (Immediate Past President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Kent Rochford (Chief Executive Officer): $878,839 total reported compensation
  • Bradley Ferguson (COO & COFO): $469,673 total reported compensation
  • Scott C H Ritchey (Sr Director, Information Technology): $435,609 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics, advancing an interdisciplinary approach to light-based science and technology.

What it reported doing in 2025

Publications - SPIE helps the scientist authors publish their work via Publications and Journals. The technical publications include: books, Journals, conference proceedings, and online products. Proceedings of SPIE conferences are technical publications that educate the engineering community about current technology, research and applications. Online website links allow access to products and services used by scientists and engineers. Approximately 5,500 hardcopy books were shipped in 2025. SPIE is also the publisher of over 15 technical journals: Advanced Photonics, Advanced Photonics Nexus, Advanced Quantum Photonics, Biophotonics Discovery, Journal of Applied Remote Sensing, Journal of Astronomical, Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems, Journal of Biomedical Optics, Journal of Medical Imaging, Journal of Micro/Nanopatterning, Materials and Metrology, Journal of Nanophotonics, Journal of Optical Microsystems, Journal of Photonics for Energy, Neurophotonics, Optical Engineering, and Photonics Insights. SPIE is also a Co-publisher of Journal of Electronic Imaging with Society for Imaging Science and Technology. Total circulation of journals during 2025 was about 25,000 online subscriptions.

Operating model

Revenue model
Other-operating. 95% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 92% 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 most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of total spending goes to programs and reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 53
  • Transparency & Controls: 84
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 66
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 59.5%; rating input score 60
  • Program expense ratio: 58.1%; rating input score 58
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 6 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Pass
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • Written employment contract: Pass
    • 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: Limited
    • Conducts field audits: Limited
    • May suspend future funding: Limited
    • Requires financial reports: Pass
    • Conducts site visits: Limited
    • Requires grant agreements: Limited
    • May require repayment: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 92%; rating input score 92; 31st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 9 of 9 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: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 15.1%; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.05; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.23; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 7.8%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 3.2% per year; rating input score 100; 24th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 2.7% per year; rating input score 100; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 4.6% per year; rating input score 100; 32nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 4 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
  • Where the money goes: 59.5% of revenue deployed · 58.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 20 of 20 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $31.8M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $879K · 35 people listed · 6 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $9M reported
  • Consistency: 46 of 48 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
  • Schedules: 9 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, executive pay, and related organizations
  • Filing history: 16 filing years from 2010 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 25 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 9 filed related-organization links
  • 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.

  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 58/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 8/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Foreign grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.