Sonoma Valley Authors Festival

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
844846165
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2019
Location
San Francisco, CA, USA
Phone
7072829028
Rating
78
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Arts Education

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,454,735
Expenses
$1,334,364
Assets
$625,600
Liabilities
$653,574

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

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Reuel David Freeman (President)

People named in this filing

  • Reuel David Freeman (President)
  • Virginia Freeman (Treas/Secretary)
  • Jeremy J Sugerman (Director)

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 Sonoma Valley Authors Festival(SVAF)has five parts: the Festival, Students Day, Authors on the Plaza, the Virtual Festival, and Special Events.

What it reported doing in 2025

The Sonoma Valley Authors Festival (SVAF) has four parts: The Festival, Students Day, Authors on the Plaza, and The Virtual Festival (SVAF 360). Our mission is to focus on two things while implementing all parts of the Festival: stimulating the minds and nurturing the souls of readers and enriching students and featuring possibilities for future careers through exposure to authors and thought leaders in science, technology, and medicine.We hosted the 3-day Festival from May 2-4, 2025, at the Sonoma Mission Inn for over 350 attendees. Twenty-five presentations were made by authors, who had written a book, and thought leaders in science, technology, and medicine in TED-talk style. All presentations were video-recorded.Students Day at Sonoma Valley High School featured six different authors and over 1,000 of their books were given away free to over 1,500 students. Students Day at the elementary schools featured a local Sonoma children's book author who made presentations at five schools to over 600 kids. Over 2,000 free books were distributed to the kids who attended the presentations as well as to schools who were unable to schedule the live presentations. All elementary school libraries received copies of several of the authors titles.Three of our authors spoke for free for three hours to over 1,000 community members at the Sonoma Plaza - the 8-acre town square with towering trees and manicured lawn. Over 1,000 books from previous years were given away free to the attendees. The Virtual Festival - video-recordings of all of the Festival presentations were made available free online for one month after the live Festival was over. Hundreds of individuals watched many hundreds of hours of presentations.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 78% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
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.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 68
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 82
  • Sustainability: 41
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 69.9%; rating input score 70
  • Program expense ratio: 76.2%; rating input score 76
  • Fundraising efficiency: $9.79 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 4 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 57
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 8.3%; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.47; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 1.04; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 20.3% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 20.4% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 15.8% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 69.9% of revenue deployed · 76.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 4 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
  • Consistency: 25 of 25 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • 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.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 34/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 6 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 23/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 52/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 4/100.