Talking Eyes Media Inc

What it reported doing in 2024

Production Services In 2024, Talking Eyes Media (TEM) marked its 21st anniversary and TEM continued to share our ongoing projects while pursuing several new initiatives. TEM was also honored to have Executive Director Julie Winokur named one of 76 artists to be awarded an Individual Artist Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council for the Arts. This competitive prize acknowledges an outstanding contribution to the arts in New Jersey.Talking Eyes Medias project Newest Americans continues to be a valuable resource for educators and the general public, and TEM continued to deploy the Newark Story Bus to events in the city of Newark. This multi-year digital media project examines immigration and American identity. Developed in partnership with Rutgers University-Newark and VII Photo, Newest Americans produces short films, radio pieces, written essays, exhibitions and public events that explore the lives and communities, trials and aspirations of Americas diverse immigrant population. The project was awarded Best Online Storytelling Project in 2021 by Pictures of the Year International.Through Newest Americans, TEM has developed partnerships with Audible, Newark Museum of Art, Newark Public Library, NJPAC and Newark Symphony Hall to share our media and engage in conversations with local thought leaders. The goal has been to activate and collaborate with the anchor cultural institutions in the city to provide compelling content to a broad audience.With support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Newest Americans created the Newark Story Bus. This retrofitted former school bus serves as a mobile media lab to collect stories throughout the city at community events, schools and businesses. It is also used to educate students on basic media skills. In 2023, TEM partnered with Audible to activate the bus at two community events: one geared toward local entrepreneurs and one focused on senior citizens. From these activations, TEM produced short videos that highlighted the participants stories and shared the voices of Newark residents with a larger audience. TEM also activated the bus in partnership with Lives in Translation, a Rutgers-based program that engages students in working as translators.Through TEM's content from the bus, TEM produced a series of short videos featuring Newark residents who have first-hand experience of the Great Migration. This series of six animated shorts was released in early 2024 for Black History Month. The shorts reveal family histories that show how the Great Migration is not part of the distant past, but very present in the neighborhoods, art, music, food and culture of present-day Newark.The TEM film, Bring It to The Table, continues to be licensed by universities across the country through our distribution partner, Kanopy. This film addresses political partisanship and each citizens responsibility in bridging the divide. As a result of this work, the TEM Executive Director, Julie Winokur was invited to give a keynote presentation at the Madeira School in Virginia in 2024.TEMs film, The Sacrifice Zone, had ten screenings during the year, all followed by engaging discussions around environmental justice, structural racism, and waste removal. The film follows a group of activists in Newarks Ironbound neighborhood as they fight for clean air. TEM invites environmental justice activists who appear in the film to engage in post-screening discussions. The screenings have been hosted by grassroots organizers, concerned citizens and educators. This work builds on TEM's over 50 screenings in the past two years, as well as touring the film festival circuit. As of this year, the film has been acquired for the permanent collections of 16 higher education libraries.TEM produced six videos for the James Irvine Leadership Awards in 2024 featuring nonprofits in California that address black maternal health, library services, Native American food sovereignty, and diversity in the film industry.In early 202

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
• Program expense ratio: 90.6%; rating input score 91
• Fundraising efficiency: $7 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 30; 30th 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: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 83.3%; rating input score 83; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 4 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 44
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Fail
  • Document-retention policy: Fail
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • 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: -34%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.52; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 34.5%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 1.2% per year; rating input score 100; 36th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 1.1% per year; rating input score 100; 30th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 12.4% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings