Vanguard Culture
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 812870845
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2016
- Location
- San Diego, CA, USA
- Phone
- 6198297561
- Rating
- 76
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Cultural, Ethnic Awareness
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $100,276
- Expenses
- $96,580
- Assets
- $29,410
- Liabilities
- $23,509
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
14 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Susana Peredo Swap (Executive Director)
- Shaun Cassidy (President)
Highest reported compensation
- Susana Peredo Swap (Executive Director): $19,513 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Vanguard Culture is a volunteer-powered, inclusive nonprofit dedicated to advancing San Diegos Creative Industries. We provide quality arts journalism, cutting edge events, professional development that create arts jobs, bring diverse communities together, inspire collaboration among the visual, performing, culinary arts. CONT SCHEDULE O
What it reported doing in 2025
ARTS JOURNALISM Vanguard Culture produces a weekly newsletter, Vanguard Culture WEEKLY that features a curated selection of San Diegos best, most exciting, and unique cultural and culinary events for our 22K subscribers. We also produce in-depth feature articles on art-related topics for a wide audience, and we maintain a dynamic website. Since 2018, we received 82 awards for Excellence in Arts Journalism from the San Diego Press Club, including Best Entertainment Website in San Diego. Our arts coverage is comprised of THE BUZZ, featuring artist interviews, show reviews, and insight into San Diego Arts Culture POETIC LICENSE, featuring beautiful photo essays of artist studio visits ART SEEN, highlighting behind-the-scenes creatives, and ART SHOP TALKS, a mini-documentary series on YouTube highlighting artists of our region. Quality arts journalism aligns with our mission to create arts jobs, bring diverse communities together, and inspire creative collaboration. Increased coverage of San Diegos vibrant arts and culture sector Continued on Schedule O.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 61
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 28
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 61.5%; rating input score 62
- Program expense ratio: 63.9%; rating input score 64
- Fundraising efficiency: $13.93 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
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: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- 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: 3.7%; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.3; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.8; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 20.2%; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 27.3% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 15.8% per year; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 9.6% per year; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 61.5% of revenue deployed · 63.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $62K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $20K · 14 people listed
- Consistency: 23 of 23 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 6 filing years from 2020 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 46/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 44/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 17/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 5/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 18/100.