Tamizdat Project Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 883480455
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2023–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2022
- Location
- Astoria, NY, USA
- Phone
- 4753550981
- Rating
- 62
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Fund Raising and/or Fund Distribution
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $54,750
- Expenses
- $120,556
- Assets
- $13,356
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
6 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Yakov Klots (President and Founder)
People named in this filing
- Andrew Jack (Secretary)
- Mark Lipovetsky (Board Member)
- Yakov Klots (President and Founder)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Tamizdat Project is a public scholarship and philanthropic organization dedicated to the study of exile and cultural displacement, state censorship and banned or endangered books from the Cold War to the present, with a focus on the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. This story is not just history, it is still unfolding. On our website, and through a series of live events and other programs in NYC and beyond, we bring archival discoveries, eyewitness accounts, and other forms of knowledge about banned books to the international community of students, scholars, and the general public.
What it reported doing in 2025
Student support
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 69% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Grant intermediary. The nonprofit sent 100% of its reported program spending out as grants.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 40
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 14
- Growth: 20
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 51.4%; rating input score 51
- Program expense ratio: 23.3%; rating input score 23
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -120.2%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.11; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -4.7% per year; rating input score 0; 36th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -21.4% per year; rating input score 0; 14th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 4.9% per year; rating input score 100; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 51.4% of revenue deployed · 23.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $28K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 6 people listed
- Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 51/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 23/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 7/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 13/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.