StoryCenter

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
942660844
IRS 990 coverage
2012–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Berkeley, CA, USA
Phone
5105482065
Rating
78
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Performing Arts Organizations

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$897,365
Expenses
$834,436
Assets
$832,991
Liabilities
$558,447

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • Andrea Spagat (Co-Exec Dir): $83,335 total reported compensation
  • Joe Lambert (Co-Exec Dir): $80,880 total reported compensation
  • Walter Jacobs (Co-Exec Dir): $60,000 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Our focus is on partnering with community, educational, and business institutions to develop large-scale initiatives using methods and principles adapted from our original StoryCenter Workshop.

What it reported doing in 2024

StoryCenter offers a range of services to assist individuals, organizations, and institutions around the world in pursuing their own digital storytelling work.We teach Open Workshops in locations across the U.S. and Canada, and in various cities in Europe. These sessions allow individual participants to explore the creative process of producing their own stories.The majority of our work is carried out in close partnership with a wide range of community, educational, health and human services, international development and business organizations, in the form of Customized Program Development for digital storytelling. This approach allows us to draw upon our expertise as pioneers in the field, as we work closely with clients to identify and meet specific needs in unique contexts around the world.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 63% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 72
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 75
  • Sustainability: 41
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 70.7%; rating input score 71
  • Program expense ratio: 75.5%; rating input score 75
  • Fundraising efficiency: $31.62 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 69; 69th 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: 75%; rating input score 75; 16th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • 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: 7%; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.67; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 26.9%; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 3% per year; rating input score 100; 31st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 3.4% per year; rating input score 100; 34th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 13.9% per year; rating input score 100; 70th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 70.7% of revenue deployed · 75.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 6 of 8 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $630K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $83K · 9 people listed
  • Consistency: 27 of 27 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 12 filing years from 2012 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
  • 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 55/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 43/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 9/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 11/100.