The Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 251843470
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Phone
- 2137401864
- Rating
- 70
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Research Institutes and Public Policy Analysis
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $805,751
- Expenses
- $995,322
- Assets
- $10,422,782
- Liabilities
- $37,089
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
19 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- RICHARD WOOD (President)
Highest reported compensation
- RICHARD WOOD (President): $254,411 total reported compensation
- REBECCA KING CERLING (Executive Dir.): $126,618 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 institute's mission is to conduct research on key issues facing society to help both the church and society deal thoughtfully with the major issues they face globally. The institute also sponsors and conducts research and scholarship on all aspects of the catholic tradition, cultural/ecclesial heritage of catholicism, and disseminates the results of such research.
What it reported doing in 2024
The institute develops distinctive intellectual capital by studying the long and rich catholic intellectual tradition. That tradition includes not only brilliant theologians and philosophers, but also scientists, social scientists, historians, poets, writers, artists, architects and musicians. The institute promotes understanding, critiquing, and developing catholic intellectual life for the service not only of the church, but all religions, especially as it dedicates itself to the common good. The institute draws upon an international group of scholars, all of whom, whatever their religious background or scholarly discipline, seek to understand catholicism and its value for the world today. The institute's research, publications, conferences, and articles are internationally recognized as thoughtful contributions to the understanding, clarification and resolution of major issues facing the church, religions and global society. Since 2007, the institute has organized an annual lecture series at usc which provides a venue for examining religion and public life by featuring the work of scholars, journalists, artists, and leaders. Through a range of meetings, colloquia, conferences and seminars, the institute coordinates and sponsors scholarship on a number of core themes as follows: the exercise of authority in the roman catholic church, global catholic intellectual networks, religion and democracy, the future of congregations and their property, transhumanism, and artificial intelligence.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- 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. A relatively small share of total spending goes to programs and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 61
- Transparency & Controls: 75
- Accountability: 91
- Sustainability: 40
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 79%; rating input score 79
- Program expense ratio: 49.2%; rating input score 49
- Fundraising efficiency: $1.83 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 16th 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: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- 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: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -23.5%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 10.47; rating input score 92; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 75; 75th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 38.3%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 2.9% per year; rating input score 100; 31st percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -1.9% per year; rating input score 0; 9th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 9.9% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 79% of revenue deployed · 49.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 17 of 17 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $489K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $254K · 19 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 24 of 25 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 13 filing years from 2010 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.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 49/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 5/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 8/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 9 not reported.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 4/100.