The Mericos Foundation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 953500491
- IRS 990-PF coverage
- 2017–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990-PF 2024, Form 990-T 2020
- Location
- Pasadena, CA, USA
- Phone
- 6264415188
- Rating
- 89
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Standard
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $896,407
- Expenses
- $3,782,676
Source: IRS Form 990-PF. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Overview
Mission
The Mericos Foundation is a nonprofit. Location: Pasadena, CA. EIN 953500491. Tax year 2024 Form 990-PF reports $896K revenue and $3.8M expenses.
What it reported funding in 2024
The foundation reported 100 grants totaling $3,098,250. The stated grant purposes included general operating support, educational programs in haiti, and hurricane helene relief, plus 42 other reported purposes.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Investment-supported. 100% of the foundation's positive operating resources came from recurring investment income.
- Distribution model
- Grant intermediary. The foundation distributed 89% of its reported charitable disbursements as grants.
- Includes asset-sale income: Asset-sale income is shown separately from recurring resources when classifying the revenue model.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes to charitable grants and the filing identifies who received its grants. Assets provide a limited cushion relative to annual grants and the filing reports one or more activities that warrant closer review.
Rating breakdown
- Grant Deployment: 100
- Cost Efficiency: 83
- Transparency: 100
- Compliance: 94
- Endowment Health: 39
Detailed rating inputs
Grant Deployment
- Grant deployment ratio: 100%; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
Cost Efficiency
- Grant expense ratio: 83.1%; rating input score 83; 55th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency
- Grant recipient disclosure: Yes; rating input score 100
Compliance
- Part VII-B activity disclosures: 17 of 19 controls in place; rating input score 89
- Property sale or exchange with a disqualified person: Pass
- Borrowing from or lending to a disqualified person: Pass
- Goods, services, or facilities involving a disqualified person: Pass
- Compensation paid to a disqualified person: Fail
- Assets transferred to a disqualified person: Pass
- Payment to a government official: Pass
- Uncorrected prior self-dealing: Pass
- Prior-year undistributed income: Pass
- Excess business holdings: Pass
- Investments that may jeopardize charitable purposes: Pass
- Uncorrected prior-year jeopardizing investments: Pass
- Attempt to influence legislation: Pass
- Attempt to influence an election: Pass
- Grants to individuals: Pass
- Grants to organizations: Fail
- Spending for a noncharitable purpose: Pass
- Funds received for a personal-benefit contract: Pass
- Premiums paid on a personal-benefit contract: Pass
- Prohibited tax-shelter transaction: Pass
- Filing consistency checks: 10; rating input score 100
Endowment Health
- Endowment-health comparison: 17.91; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: Financial trends and filed revenue, expense, asset, and liability detail
- Grants: 100% of grant recipient detail disclosed
- Payout: At least 100% grant deployment rate
- Trustees: Filed trustees detail
- Self-dealing: 100% of reviewed questions answered “No”
- Investments: 39th percentile for endowment coverage
- Consistency: 10 of 10 current checks pass
- Filing history: 8 filing years from 2017 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 102 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 — Endowment Health: Endowment-health comparison scored 39/100.
- Review — Compliance: Part VII-B activity disclosures: 2 of 19 not reported.