Surgical Eye Expeditions International Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 311682275
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2012–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Santa Barbara, CA, USA
- Phone
- 8059633303
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- International Development
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $14,887,864
- Expenses
- $15,590,318
- Assets
- $12,874,730
- Liabilities
- $450,897
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
17 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Donald W Bell (CEO)
- Arianna M Castellanos (Vice President of Programs)
Highest reported compensation
- Donald W Bell (CEO): $244,570 total reported compensation
- Arianna M Castellanos (Vice President of Programs): $161,593 total reported compensation
- Rachel B Tennant (VP/Chief Dev. Off.): $159,647 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Surgical Eye Expeditions INTERNATIONAL, INC. is a nonprofit, humanitarian organization that provides medical, surgical, and educational services by volunteer ophthalmic surgeons with the primary goal of restoring sight to blind individuals worldwide.
What it reported doing in 2024
EDUCATION DIVISIONSEE offers hands on training on Manual Small Incision Cataract Surgery (MSICS); a low-cost, low tech form of cataract extraction that saves time, money, and energy, most commonly used in third world and remote areas, globally. Additionally, due to the nature of cataracts in areas where we work (hard, dense, and mature), surgeons are unable to use the same measures to remove the cataract that they would in the US. In 2006, we offered educational opportunities to ophthalmologists and residents in their final years of school through our training and in 2024, wecontinued focused efforts of supporting the training of international residents and community health care workers. We primarly focus training of the following, yet have expanded our training reach to support non-surgeons with a whole person mindset in eye care:- Level 1 MSICS courses: lecture and wet lab for those new to the technique. - Level 2 MSICS courses: supervised hands-on surgery in the field.We supported the training of 240 board-certified and resident trainees in 2024, and trained an additional 283 technicians, nurses and assistants. Throughout 2024, SEE continued to support the Vision 2020 LINKS-USA program which matches international needs with institutional expertise to create stronger vision care systems. The RIIO and Wills Eye Hospital LINKs project displayed great success leading to a second 3rd year cycle of SEE support in 2022, and finalizing in early 2025. SEE also continued to work with the second LINKS program between Emory University and Addis Ababa University through 2024.SEE's strategic vision of focusing most of our efforts internationally, was practiced in great depth and with more intention in 2023 and only carried forward successfully in 2024, more than doubling our training efforts. We found success in this change to reach the longer-term goal of supporting the build of sustainable eye care models, globally.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 97% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 99% 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 - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 88
- Transparency & Controls: 68
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 34
- Growth: 20
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 94.7%; rating input score 95
- Program expense ratio: 89.3%; rating input score 89
- Fundraising efficiency: $14.2 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 94.4%; rating input score 94; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Pass
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Missing
- Foreign activity oversight: 0 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Claims monitoring procedures: Limited
- Requires narrative reports: Limited
- Conducts field audits: Limited
- May suspend future funding: Limited
- Requires financial reports: Limited
- Conducts site visits: Limited
- Requires grant agreements: Limited
- May require repayment: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th 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: -4.7%; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.83; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 3.6%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -13.2% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -9.5% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 8.4% per year; rating input score 100; 57th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 94.7% of revenue deployed · 89.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 14 of 14 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $13.9M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $245K · 17 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 37 of 38 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, and executive pay
- Filing history: 11 filing years from 2012 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 3 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.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 48/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 17/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 29/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.