Sports Field Management Association
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 742398195
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Lawerence, KS, USA
- Phone
- 7858432549
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,431,407
- Expenses
- $1,587,568
- Assets
- $2,186,743
- Liabilities
- $1,142,308
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
13 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- LAURA SIMMONS (CEO)
- ADAM THOMS PHD (PRESIDENT-EL)
- SUN ROESSLEIN (PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- LAURA SIMMONS (CEO): $142,841 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Sfma's official mission is to advance professionalism in sports field management and safety through education, awareness programs and industry development.
What it reported doing in 2024
Membership services - provides educational and networking opportunities and programs for professionals responsible for the care of sports fields across the country and the world. Stma provides education through newsletters, magazines, annual and regional conferences, trade shows and hands-on workshops. Stma serves more than 2,000 national members and supports its 32 local affiliated chapters. Annual meeting in the sports turf industry's most comprehensive training event is held each year, bringing together more than 1,500 people for four days. More than 70 educational sessions are held including classroom education, hands-on training and an opportunity to see the latest technology in the 100,000 sq ft exhibition hall. In 2023, stma provided many resources to its members, we continued to help them manage during pandemic times, we helped our members with their limited staff, reduced budgets and limited play on fields during this time. We held many virtual events, podcasts and produced as much digital communication as we could.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 82% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- 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 - 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 some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 69
- Transparency & Controls: 90
- Accountability: 84
- Sustainability: 30
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 79.9%; rating input score 80
- Program expense ratio: 72%; rating input score 72
- Fundraising efficiency: $0.95 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 3; 3rd 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: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- 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: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -10.9%; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.38; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.52; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 9%; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 26.2% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 2.3% per year; rating input score 100; 27th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 0.9% per year; rating input score 100; 21st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 79.9% of revenue deployed · 72% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 12 of 12 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments
- Leadership: top reported pay $143K · 13 people listed
- Consistency: 29 of 29 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 3/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 16/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 53/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 15/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 40/100.