Stet News Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
990718037
IRS 990 coverage
2024–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
West Palm Beach, FL, USA
Phone
5613469489
Rating
75
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Media, Communications Organizations

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$272,716
Expenses
$136,017
Assets
$200,382
Liabilities
$553

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

Leadership & pay

3 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Joel Engelhardt (President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Elizabeth Capozzi (Director): $41,193 total reported compensation
  • Carolyn DiPaolo (Seretary): $14,400 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Provided coverage of local governments, businesses, development and cultural events, including more than 200 original stories. Stet's weekly newsletter reached thousands of registered readers. Its stories, often going into more depth than the newsletter, reached a monthly digital audience topping 15,000. Most stories were unique to Stet News and were made available to local news partners and made available on our website free of charge. Stet News also provides brief summaries of major stories of local interest in other publications, spanning print, broadcast and independent journalism. Stet's work has been honored with numerous journalism awards, including best newsletter, best independent website and best community news reporting in statewide and regional news contests.

What it reported doing in 2025

Provided coverage of local governments, businesses, development and events, including hundreds of original stories. Stet's weekly newsletter reached thousands of registered readers. Its stories, often going into more depth than the newsletter, are free and available to anyone on the World Wide Web.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 99% 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.

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 some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 63
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 74
  • Sustainability: 64
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 45.4%; rating input score 45
  • Program expense ratio: 90.2%; rating input score 90
  • Fundraising efficiency: $41.66 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 50.1%; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.47; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 40.9%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 105.3% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 80.4% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 102% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 45.4% of revenue deployed · 90.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 3 of 3 board members independent · 3 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $123K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $41K · 3 people listed
  • Consistency: 40 of 40 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 2 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 2 filing years from 2024 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
  • 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: Mission deployment rate scored 45/100.
  • Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 7 not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 51/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 6/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 47/100.