40 West Arts Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
452729060
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2021
Location
Lakewood, CO, USA
Phone
7205306051
Rating
75
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Arts, Cultural Organizations - Multipurpose

Reported finances

Revenue
$322,521
Expenses
$359,045
Assets
$50,533
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • Liz Black (PT Exec Director): $38,000 total reported compensation
  • Terra Marks (Gallery Manager): $34,000 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Vision: The re-emergence of Lakewoods historic West Colfax corridor as a vibrant creative corridor and a memorable destination. Mission: To enrich the community and enhance the creative cultural and economic vitality of the historic West Colfax corridor by creating community arts spaces and community arts events and by supporting creative enterprises experiences and activities in the district. Values: To be an inclusive organization with a commitment to creativity that inspires artistic experimentation for both the novice and professional and supports and expands the creative cultural entrepreneurial economic and physical vitality of our community.

What it reported doing in 2025

40 West Connects Program provides free arts and culture programming to the surrounding community including our ever-popular Summer Youth Camps. Lakewood West Colfax is historically a corridor that has been underserved by the arts. 40 West Connects program ensures that arts and creative activities are brought to the areas and people that need it the most. These free activities including the youth camps provided by this program would not be possible without our many productive partnerships including those with our many artists members Colorados SCFD Colorado Creative Industries Xcel Energy Foundation the Colorado Gives Foundation formerly Community First Foundation the Lakewood-West Colfax BID West Colfax Community Association and our ongoing partnership with the City of Lakewood. 40 West Connects partners with our local housing authority seniors centers and local schools to provide ongoing free programming to serve youth seniors and families through our many volunteers and Artists in Residence Program.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 77% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
Distribution model
Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.

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 program spending has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 81
  • Transparency & Controls: 75
  • Accountability: 79
  • Sustainability: 22
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 94.6%; rating input score 95
  • Program expense ratio: 85%; rating input score 85
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 70%; rating input score 70; 0th 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: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -11.3%; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.14; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 20.1%; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -9.2% per year; rating input score 0; 11th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 10.1% per year; rating input score 100; 69th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 11.1% per year; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 94.6% of revenue deployed · 85% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $305K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $38K · 9 people listed
  • Consistency: 34 of 41 current checks pass · 7 findings to review
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 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.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 18/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 9/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Functional expense sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part IX Advertising column sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part IX FeesForServicesAccounting column sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part IX FeesForServicesLegal column sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part IX Occupancy column sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part IX PayrollTaxes column sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 18/100.