The Poynter Institute for Media Studies Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 591630423
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-T 2025
- Location
- Stpetersburg, FL, USA
- Phone
- 7278219494
- Rating
- 80
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Standard
- Sector
- Higher Education Institutions
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $18,601,320
- Expenses
- $18,548,955
- Assets
- $51,457,958
- Liabilities
- $516,013
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
17 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- NEIL BROWN (President)
Highest reported compensation
- CONAN GALLATY (Trustee): $410,668 total reported compensation
- NEIL BROWN (President): $384,254 total reported compensation
- JESSICA M NAVARRO (COO & CFO): $261,440 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The poynter institue is a school dedicated to teaching and inspiring journalists and media leaders. It promotes excellence and integrity in the practice of craft and in the practical leadership of successful businesses. It stands for a journalism that informs citizens and enlightens public discourse. It carries forward nelson poynter's belief in the value of independent journalism.
What it reported doing in 2025
Poynter provides in-depth, non-partisan fact-checking both with guidelines and governance for fact-checkers worldwide. The international fact-checking network (ifcn) is a unit of the poynter institute dedicated to bringing together fact-checkers wordlwide. The ifcn was launched in september 2015 to support fact-checking initiatives by promoting best practices and exchanges in this field. In addition to supporting a code of principles with over 170 organizations participating in the verification process for fact-checkers worldwide, the ifcn also provides global training and summits to improve the craft. For its collaborative efforts, the ifcn was nominated in 2021 for the nobel peace price. Poynter also manages one of the foremost national fact-checking brands, politifact. Politifact provides daily fact-checking and resources to both journalists and the public. In addition, politifact trains and educates other fact-checkers as well as holds citizen training events.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 75% for direct work, and 25% for grants.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 88
- Transparency & Controls: 75
- Accountability: 77
- Sustainability: 44
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 90.2%; rating input score 90
- Program expense ratio: 89%; rating input score 89
- Fundraising efficiency: $40.4 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 94.4%; rating input score 94; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: 2 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 25
- Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
- Requires narrative reports: Limited
- Conducts field audits: Limited
- May suspend future funding: Limited
- Requires financial reports: Limited
- Conducts site visits: Limited
- Requires grant agreements: Pass
- May require repayment: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 95.9%; rating input score 96; 35th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 60%; rating input score 60; 9th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 0.3%; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.77; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 9.9%; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 12.5% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 9.6% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 1.5% per year; rating input score 100; 11th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 90.2% of revenue deployed · 89% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 6 of 10 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $16.5M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $411K · 17 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 4 contractors listed · $731K reported
- Consistency: 37 of 38 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 10 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, executive pay, and related organizations
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 34 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 24 filed related-organization links
- 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 — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 26/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 25/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.