The562 Network Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
824314833
IRS 990 coverage
2018–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Long Beach, CA, USA
Phone
5622341740
Rating
76
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Printing, Publishing

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$257,962
Expenses
$312,361
Assets
$27,720
Liabilities
$12,000

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

15 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Andrew J Kerr (President Chairperson of the Board)

Highest reported compensation

  • Michael Guardabascio (Founder Editor): $72,436 total reported compensation
  • S Tyler R Hendrickson (Development Director Associate Editor): $66,854 total reported compensation
  • Jeffrey L Fiddler Jr (Founder Editor): $36,243 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

This Corporation is a nonprofit public benefit corporation and is not organized for the private gain of any person. It is organized under the Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation Law for public purposes. The specific purpose of this Corporation is to be a community-funded nonprofit news organization covering the greater Long Beach area and its students: Writers photographers and videographers cover youth and amateur sports in and around the city. The coverage provides the community with information and the student-athletes with free exposure without the business side of college recruiting services. The Corporation staff also spends time in classrooms with young and aspiring high school and college journalists to help give them the skills to succeed in the professional world. The Corporations website will feature multimedia content and coverage of local sports including articles videos and photographs.

What it reported doing in 2025

The562 Network is a community funded nonprofit media outlet that covers sports and education in the City of Long Beach with free articles video highlights photo galleries podcasts features previews and more. Founders and editors Mike Guardabascio and JJ Fiddler as well as other staff members visit local high schools and colleges to discuss the future of media and work with aspiring local journalists. Mike Guardabascio has been writing professionally for 17 years. His work has been published in dozens of Southern California magazines and newspapers. Hes won numerous awards and is the author of the book Football in Long Beach and co-author of Basketball in Long Beach. JJ Fiddler is an award-winning professional sportswriter and videographer who has been covering Southern California sports for multiple newspapers and websites since 2004. After attending Long Beach State and creating the first full sports page at the Union Weekly newspaper he has exclusively covered Long Beach sports since 2007. The562 Network covers the schools of Long Beach not just the sports. Everyone in the city is encouraged to utilize this community service to promote their events that support the local youth on and off campus. The562. org has about 150,000 page views each month with approximately 50,000 unique readers per month. Our videos are viewed between 75,000 and 160,000 times per month. Our social media engagements are regularly in the tens of thousand and our daily email newsletter reaches close to 3,000 subscribers.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 90% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 83
  • Transparency & Controls: 74
  • Accountability: 79
  • Sustainability: 8
  • Growth: 80

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 83.3%; rating input score 83
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -21.1%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.09; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.43; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 59.9%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 8.9% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 8.7% per year; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -1.7% per year; rating input score 0; 16th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 83.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $260K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $72K · 15 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 40 of 40 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 8 filing years from 2018 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 4 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.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 11/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 6/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 2/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 10/100.