Viewpoints Research Institute Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
954875805
IRS 990 coverage
2009–2017
Forms available
Form 990 2017
Location
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Phone
3102899888
Rating
75
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Professional Societies, Associations

Reported finances

Revenue
$551
Expenses
$874,553
Assets
$0
Liabilities
$0

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2017. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • DR ALAN KAY (President)

Highest reported compensation

  • KIMBERLY ROSE (Secretary): $132,374 total reported compensation
  • DR ALAN KAY (President): $116,332 total reported compensation
  • EDWIN KAEHLER (Computer Scientist): $45,834 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2017. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The organization's mission is to improve "powerful ideas education" for the world's children and to advance the state of systems research and personal computing.

What it reported doing in 2017

Viewpoints research builds everything it invents and engineers prototypes with an emphasis on usability. Our final year of research covered four areas: teaching and learning powerful ideas, powerful ideas content and how to represent it, user interfaces that aid learning and doing, and inventing fundamental new computing technologies.our organization distributed our free, open source educational software - "squeak etoys" and "croquet" - with examples and documentation to tens of thousands of users since the software has been created.in addition to communication via the internet, the institute communicated with educators, developers, and users through presentations at international conferences, public lectures, and at academic institutions. Books have been published in many languages including english, french, german, portuguese, japanese, korean and chinese to help spread our research and ideas and the use of the new computing media developed by the institute.dr. Alan kay, president of viewpoints research, has given lectures and demonstrations at technical conferences, to academic audiences, business audiences, and public gatherings to showcase the findings of our research.the organization ceased its program services and research on december 31, 2017. A certificate of dissolution was filed with the California secretary of state on january 5, 2018.

Operating model

Revenue model
Investment-supported. 99% of the money available for current operations came from recurring investment income.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 44% for direct work, and 56% for grants.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 84
  • Transparency & Controls: 93
  • Accountability: 68
  • Sustainability: 2
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 82.4%; rating input score 82
  • Fundraising efficiency: $0 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 60%; rating input score 60; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
    • 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: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -158,621.1%; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
  • Officer compensation ratio: 37.9%; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -12.1% per year; rating input score 0; 31st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -17.8% per year; rating input score 0; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -14% per year; rating input score 0; 14th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 82.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 3 of 5 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $721K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $132K · 9 people listed
  • Consistency: 26 of 26 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes grants
  • Filing history: 8 filing years from 2009 to 2017
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 6 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • 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.

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 7/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 2/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 9/100.
  • High — Grant Readiness: California registration: this organization is recorded as not currently operating in California.