The International Society for Japanese Philately
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 526053795
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2010
- Location
- Haddonfield, NJ, USA
- Phone
- 6094712787
- Rating
- 76
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Libraries
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $65,197
- Expenses
- $58,195
- Assets
- $791,933
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
12 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- EDWIN KAWASAKI (PRESIDENT)
- LOIS M EVANS-DE VIOLINI (VICE-PRESIDENT)
People named in this filing
- EDWIN KAWASAKI (PRESIDENT)
- LOIS M EVANS-DE VIOLINI (VICE-PRESIDENT)
- KENNETH KAMHOLZ (SECRETARY & TREASURER)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Isjp is organized and operated for the purpose of promoting intelligent interest in the philately of japan and related areas, and to encourage friendly cooperation among philatelists in all free nations.
What it reported doing in 2025
Isjp is primarily focused on preparing, publishing, and distributing its educational journal, japanese philately (hereinafter referred to as the "journal"). Isjp publishes 4 issues of the journal each year and the typical length of an issue is 48 pages (with occasional issues of even greater length). The journal is copiously illustrated with photographs and maps, and each issue includes educational content in the form of both short and long articles about japanese philately concentrating on information and scholarship that is likely to be of lasting value. Isjp prepares, publishes, and distributes its journal to promote intelligent interest in the philately and postal history of japan and former japanese colonies (korea, sakhalin [karafuto], taiwan), territories (kwantung, the south manchurian railway zone, and the mandated caroline, mariana, and marshall islands), and occupied aeras (china and southeast asia), including manchoukuo, the ryukyu islands, japanese seapost offices and other civilian and military post offices abroad, and foreign post offices in japan. Isjp develops the information and educational material in the journal, lays it out, and coordinates the printing and mailing of the journal. Isjp also annually prepares and publishes an index to the journals published in prior years, as well as, publishes detailed written studies of a single specialized subject (monographs) on topics relating to japanese philately and japan's visual and cultural history, which are distributed to members along with the journal. Isjp distributes its journal and monographs free of additional charge to all members and to a few libraries and other stamp-collecting-related institutions.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Investment-supported. 82% of the money available for current operations came from recurring investment income.
- 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 - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 67
- Transparency & Controls: 90
- Accountability: 70
- Sustainability: 65
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 70.4%; rating input score 70
- Program expense ratio: 84.6%; rating input score 85
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 2 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 29
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 10.7%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 13.61; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 9.1% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 26% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 0.7% per year; rating input score 100; 41st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 70.4% of revenue deployed · 84.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 12 of 12 board members independent · 2 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $49K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 12 people listed
- Consistency: 14 of 14 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 6 filing years from 2020 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- 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.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- High — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 6 not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 58/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.