Traveling South Asian Literacy Festival

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
923640639
IRS 990 coverage
2024–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2023
Location
Seattle, WA, USA
Phone
2067784336
Rating
84
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Arts, Culture, and Humanities N.E.C.

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$211,862
Expenses
$227,606
Assets
$51,609
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

7 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Alka Kurian (Executive Director)
  • Kavita Garg (Vice President)
  • Shesh Mathur (President)

People named in this filing

  • Alka Kurian (Executive Director)
  • Sumathi Raghavan (Secretary)
  • Pratik Sharma (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

Traveling South Asian Literacy Festival brings together a diversity of South Asian Literary voices to surface and deepen conversations around key issues in South Asia and its diasporas. It curates and documents historically under-represented writings of people in both mainstream and regional South Asian languages and in translation.

What it reported doing in 2025

Hold once a year annual traveling litfests to spotlight local talent across North America and South Asia.Hold hybrid events to enable to enable virtual attendance for those unable to travel to the venues.Build a fund to cover participating author honoraria, travel, and accomodation costs.Post book reviews (written, audio, and video) on the website in diverse South Asian languages and in translation.Host a literary festival called JLF Seattle. The Jaipur Literature Festival affirms the power of words and ideas through a line-up of speakers and sessions.TRASAL Talks-Holds a monthly virtual book talk series featuring renowned and emerging writers in conversation on South Asian histories, politics, culture, identity, and diaspora.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 96% 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

STRONG - 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: 88
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 76
  • Sustainability: 31
  • Growth: 80

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 97.9%; rating input score 98
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • 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: 3 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 43
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • 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: -7.4%; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.23; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 101% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 39.2% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -26.5% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 97.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 3 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $223K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 7 people listed
  • Consistency: 19 of 19 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 2 filing years from 2024 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 6 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 22/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 13/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.