The 1947 Partition Archive

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
452669508
IRS 990 coverage
2017–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2022
Location
Berkeley, CA, USA
Phone
5109261511
Rating
71
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Humanities Organizations

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$319,691
Expenses
$327,100
Assets
$35,381
Liabilities
$107,194

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

Leadership & pay

3 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • DR GUNEETA SINGH BHALLA (Executive Dir.): $34,380 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

The 1947 partition archive is a citizen powered non profit organization dedicated to documenting, preserving and sharing eye witness accounts from all ethnic and economic communities affected by the partition of british india in 1947; and to educate the next generation of digital documentation and preservation workers.

What it reported doing in 2024

The 1947 Partition archive recorded and preserved oral history interviews from 502 Partition witnesses in 2024, bringing our collection to 11,594 oral histories. Of the collections, 633 oral histories were archived and over 1,000 reviewed by 15 Digital Oral History Archivist paid part-time interns, two Digital Oral History Archivist full time apprentice and 3 trained volunteer student archivist interns who in total donated 740 hours of pro-bono service to the cause. Additionally, 13 student volunteers engaged in public history activities that included copy-editing oral history abstracts, digital curation, graphic design, video editing, oral history field work, and more, donating 3,543 hours of volunteer service. The 1947 Partition Archive successfully continued and executed its paid Digital Oral History Archivist program for high school and college students, and an advanced paid apprenticeship, in collaboration with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Endowment for the Humanities. A total of four (4) college students from American colleges and universities were onboarded and trained. Six (6) museum and library science professionals were engaged as guest lecturers for the popular program. The student interns and apprentices archived for 1,440 hours in total. The organization directly served over 1,100 elderly Partition witnesses over age 78, by recording, archiving and copy-editing their oral histories and approximately 3,300 individuals who are children of witnesses and over 10,000+ estimated grandchildren and great grandchildren of witnesses in 2024. The 1947 Partition Archive onboarded 998 members of the general to its free oral history workshop, of whom 427 members completed the training and 54 went on to record and submit oral histories specifically of Partition witnesses from their communities and became confirmed Citizen Historians (trained oral historians). The 1947 Partition Archive hosted 7 community funded Story Scholars Program recipients in 2024, who submitted 147 oral history interviews. In 2024 the organization hosted two advanced oral historians who submitted 233 oral history interviews total.In 2024, 78 researchers requested access to the collections. The 1947 Partition Archive published its first public education coffee table visual history reference book, "10,000 Memories" in 2024, selling nearly 2,000 copies in 2024, including pre-orders.In 2024, The 1947 Partition Archive resumed its public pop-up exhibits. Our first exhibit post-Covid closures attracted nearly 500 attendees in Berkeley. A total of six volunteers engaged in public events and other public programming, donating 204 hours to the organization

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 95% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.
  • 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 some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 77
  • Transparency & Controls: 68
  • Accountability: 69
  • Sustainability: 21
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 80.7%; rating input score 81
  • Program expense ratio: 78.9%; rating input score 79
  • Fundraising efficiency: $16.68 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 84.6%; rating input score 85; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: 0 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Claims monitoring procedures: Fail
    • Requires narrative reports: Fail
    • Conducts field audits: Fail
    • May suspend future funding: Fail
    • Requires financial reports: Fail
    • Conducts site visits: Fail
    • Requires grant agreements: Fail
    • May require repayment: Fail
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 80th 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 2 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 25
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • 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: -2.3%; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.11; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 3.03; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 10.5%; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 11.4% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 10.5% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 1.5% per year; rating input score 100; 31st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 80.7% of revenue deployed · 78.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 3 of 3 board members independent · 2 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $258K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $34K · 3 people listed
  • Consistency: 28 of 30 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and foreign activity
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2017 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 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.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight: 8 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 7 not reported.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 53/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 34/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 7/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 1/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Functional expense sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 28/100.