Sunstone

What Sunstone does

Sunstone is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded around 1975 and operated by the Sunstone Education Foundation, Inc., headquartered at 343 North 300 West in Salt Lake City, Utah. The organization functions as an open forum for Mormon thought, art, and experience, deliberately convening fundamentalist Mormons, active Latter-day Saints, ex-Mormons, and scholars in a single intellectual community. Its core outputs are the Sunstone Magazine (six annual issues, $75/year subscription, available in print and digital), a multi-show podcast family (Sunstone Podcast, Sunstone Mormon History Podcast, Deseret Drama, Sunstone Magazine Podcast), the relaunched Sunstone Review digital publication, and a digital audio archive spanning more than 200 symposium events from 1980 to the present.

The flagship commercial and community asset is the annual Salt Lake Symposium, a three-day conference held at the University of Utah's Olpin Student Union, featuring 80+ sessions and projecting approximately 1,000 in-person attendees for 2026, complemented by recurring UK regional conferences in Leicester and the Student Association of Sunstone student program. Revenue mechanics are diversified across individual ticket sales (full passes $175, single-day $100, presenter $85, vendor tables $200), magazine subscriptions and individual issue purchases ($15/issue), event sponsorship placements ($500-$5,000), merchandise, digital symposium audio sales ($5/session or $124 all-access), and tax-deductible donations that unlock premium audio access.

Technology infrastructure is appropriately scaled for a small nonprofit (1-10 employees): standard CMS for the website, Whova for event management, and distribution through iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, Facebook (livestreaming), Instagram, and Twitter/X. Partnerships extend the organization's reach without significant capital outlay, including co-programming with the John Whitmer Historical Association and Community of Christ Seminary, financial support from the Smith-Pettit Foundation and Utah Humanities Council, and recurring use of the University of Utah as anchor venue. Sunstone celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2025, marking five decades of continuous operation in a specialized niche market.

Name

Sunstone

Legal name

Sunstone Education Foundation, Inc.

Website

https://sunstone.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1975

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Sunstone is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit operating open forums of Mormon thought through its Salt Lake City symposium, magazine, podcast family, and regional events serving Latter-day Saints, ex-Mormons, scholars, and faith transitioners.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Salt Lake City

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Event Tickets: Revenue from symposium registration including full conference passes ($175), single day passes ($100), presenter registration ($85), and meal tickets ($25-$50).
2. Magazine Subscriptions: Annual magazine subscription at $75/year providing print and digital content, plus individual issue sales at $15 each.
3. Donations: Tax-deductible donations as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Recurring donations provide free audio access to symposium content.
4. Vendor Fees: Vendor table rentals at $200 for the Handcrafters Row artisan market at the symposium.
5. Advertising and Sponsorships: Sponsorship opportunities at events ($500-$5000), program advertising, and app ad placements. Continental breakfast sponsorship at $5,000, closing banquet at $3,000, AV equipment at $2,000.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Sunstone is a nonprofit organization that publishes a print and digital magazine on Mormon thought, history, art, and culture, and hosts an annual multi-day symposium in Salt Lake City plus regional conferences. It also produces a family of podcasts and maintains a 45-year audio archive of past symposiums. Content is funded by subscriptions, event registrations, donations, sponsorships, and merchandise.

Product overview

Sunstone is a nonprofit organization operated by the Sunstone Education Foundation that serves as a platform for open forums of Mormon thought, art, and experience. The organization operates a multi-product portfolio centered on print and digital publications (Sunstone Magazine, Sunstone Review), multiple podcast series (Sunstone Podcast, Sunstone Mormon History Podcast, Deseret Drama, Sunstone Magazine Podcast), and signature annual conferences (Sunstone Symposium in Salt Lake City, Sunstone UK Conference). Additional offerings include a digital audio archive of past symposium recordings, the Student Association of Sunstone for community engagement, and a merchandise store. The organization celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2025, having been founded to encourage honest inquiry and responsible interchange of ideas across the Mormon spectrum.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Sunstone Review: A publication launched in the early 80s covering Mormon culture, history, thought, and experience in snack-sized articles.
• Sunstone Podcast
• Sunstone Mormon History Podcast
• Deseret Drama

Products and services

• Sunstone Magazine Flagship print and digital periodical of the Sunstone Education Foundation featuring scholarship, art, short fiction, and poetry on Mormon theology, history, culture, and contemporary life. Published six times per year and sold via annual subscription ($75) or single issue ($15).
• Sunstone Symposium (Salt Lake City) Annual three-day in-person conference in Salt Lake City exploring Mormon thought, art, and experience across multiple tracks. Open to fundamentalist Mormons, active Latter-day Saints, ex-Mormons, scholars, and the curious public. Pricing: $175 full pass, $100 single day, $85 presenter registration.
• Sunstone UK Conference Regional Sunstone conference focused on amplifying UK voices and British Latter-day Saint history. Full weekend registration priced at $90.
• Sunstone Podcast Weekly podcast exploring Mormonism across all its expressions, including symposium recordings, interviews, and book reviews. Hosted by Stephen Carter and distributed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
• Sunstone Mormon History Podcast Every-other-week podcast hosted by Lindsay Hansen Park and Bryan Buchanan uncovering lesser-known stories of Mormonism's 200-year history and how the religion grew from six people into a global faith.
• Deseret Drama Podcast Limited-series podcast exploring extralegal and vigilante justice throughout the history of early Mormonism, including historical criminal cases involving Mormon figures.
• Sunstone Magazine Podcast Narrated audio version of Sunstone Magazine content, bringing Mormon writing to life through professional narration by Stephen Carter. Available via yearly subscription or Patreon support.
• Sunstone Review Digital publication featuring short-form articles on Mormon culture, history, thought, and experience. Relaunched in 2024 after the original 1980s newsletter run, designed for short attention spans.
• Sunstone Store Online merchandise store selling magazine subscriptions, sticker packs, apparel such as sweatshirts and t-shirts, and commemorative items including the 50th Anniversary Pint Glass.
• Sunstone Audio Archive Digital archive of audio recordings from past symposiums and events dating back to 1980, spanning Salt Lake Symposium recordings plus regional events from Kirtland, Northwest, Southwest, DC, and international conferences—over 200 events in total.
• Digital Symposium Audio Per-session and full-bundle digital audio downloads of recorded annual Salt Lake Symposium sessions, priced at $5 per session with a complete bundle at $124; recurring donors receive free audio access.

Quantifiable outcome

• 50 years of continuous operation as a nonprofit forum for Mormon thought and experience

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• John Whitmer Historical Association (JWHA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-sponsored the Restoration Studies Symposium/Sunstone Midwest conferences, exploring themes related to common consent in Restoration traditions. Partnership combines academic programming with cross-organizational event coordination.
• Community of Christ SeminarycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-sponsored the Restoration Studies Symposium focusing on historical and theological topics across Restoration movements. Joint programming brings together scholars and practitioners from different branches of the Restoration.
• University of UtahcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAnnual Salt Lake Symposium held at University of Utah Olpin Student Union. Provides venue infrastructure and campus amenities for the main annual event.
• Beauchamp City Sixth FormminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerUK 2025 conference venue in Leicester, UK, hosting regional Sunstone UK events for British Isles audiences.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought: Dialogue is an independent quarterly journal publishing scholarly and literary work on Mormon topics — the closest direct peer to Sunstone Magazine, serving overlapping audiences of LDS intellectuals, scholars, and faith-transitioners.
• Signature Books: Independent Mormon-focused publisher producing scholarly and historically revisionist books; directly comparable as a small independent publisher serving the same niche audience as Sunstone.
• Exponent II: A Mormon feminist magazine and community organization publishing personal essays, poetry, and analysis; comparable as a small nonprofit periodical serving a distinct sub-community within the broader Mormon discussion space Sunstone occupies.
• Greg Kofford Books: An independent press specializing in Mormon scholarly and philosophical titles; directly comparable as a niche independent publisher in Mormon studies with overlapping contributor and readership bases.

Broad incumbents

• BYU Studies Quarterly: BYU's flagship academic journal on Mormon history and thought; broader and institutionally backed, but overlaps significantly with Sunstone's scholarly content and audience of LDS academics.
• Christian Century: A long-running ecumenical Christian magazine with print, digital, and event programming; broadly comparable as a faith-adjacent nonprofit publication that combines journalism, scholarship, and community events, though serving a different tradition.

Emerging players

• FAIR (Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research): LDS apologetics organization that runs conferences and produces podcasts and digital content; comparable as a Mormon-focused nonprofit that combines events, media, and community — though ideologically distinct from Sunstone's neutral forum.

Others

• Religion News Service: A nonprofit news wire covering religion and ethics globally; comparable as a nonprofit religion-focused media organization with a multi-channel digital distribution model, though operating at a much larger scale.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/SunstoneOrg
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UC6w5td2zzdxGVIxcttdd8Aw
• Facebookfacebook.com/SunstoneMagazine
• Instagraminstagram.com/sunstonemagazine

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Sunstone