Via Institute on Character

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
311663243
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Cincinnati, OH, USA
Phone
5132397037
Rating
78
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Behavioral Science

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,889,066
Expenses
$2,526,105
Assets
$4,226,036
Liabilities
$23,013

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

Leadership & pay

11 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • JILLIAN COPPLEY (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • JILLIAN COPPLEY (PRESIDENT): $222,132 total reported compensation
  • JOSEPH TILLEY (SOFTWARE ENG): $163,668 total reported compensation
  • ISABEL HOWELL (CHIEF MARKET): $141,750 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Mission: we believe that the rigorous, scientific pursuit to understand the range and dimensions of human goodness (character strengths)is the key to generating discoveries and strategies for improving the human experience that will enable and encourage the development and use of tools, practices, and methodologies which will fundamentally shift the trajectory of humankind toward the better.

What it reported doing in 2025

Advancing practice: -education (revenue is received from reports, courses, workshops consulting, etc.) -product partnerships: we partner with leading organizations to provide them with access to our intellectual property so that they can deliver character strengths based solutions. We earn revenue from licensing our intellectual property (brand, survey), examples include twill and smcov. We have also co-developed training products and licensed those products such as with whole being institute. We also provide a technology platform for organizations to be able to access our survey. -thought leadership: we aim to provide the field of character science the most current and innovative thinking. We do this by writing books (revenue earned from royalties), and offering keynote and other presentations to positive psychology societies, schools, companies, and other nonprofit organizations.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 78% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
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 fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 85
  • Transparency & Controls: 84
  • Accountability: 60
  • Sustainability: 28
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 84.2%; rating input score 84
  • Fundraising efficiency: $5.02 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Pass
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Pass
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Scored; rating input score 0

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 71.4%; rating input score 71; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 4 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 44
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -33.7%; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.67; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 25.9%; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 15.5% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 7.1% per year; rating input score 100; 49th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 13.6% per year; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 84.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 7 board members independent · 4 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $2.1M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $222K · 11 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $210K reported
  • Consistency: 30 of 30 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, executive pay, and related organizations
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2020 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 4 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 2 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.

  • Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 9 not reported.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 16/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 3/100.
  • High — Transparency & Controls: Related-party transparency scored 0/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 59/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 10/100.