Active Cultures

What it reported doing in 2025

Fiscal year 2025 was the first full year of implementing active cultures' fy2024-2027 strategic plan, a year devoted to grounding the organization's values in practice. Active cultures deepened its artist collaborations, expanded free public programming, and strengthened the organizational infrastructure required to sustain and grow its work. The organization onboarded its first full-time curator, nanette orly, extending curatorial and programmatic leadership beyond the executive director for the first time in the organization's history. Active cultures also stabilized full-time salaries for all staff, introduced health benefits, and established an operating reserve fund (benchmarks identified in the strategic plan as foundational to long-term sustainability). These organizational investments directly enabled an expanded slate of free and accessible public programs across los angeles.artist-led projectsactive cultures' core programming comprises multi-season artist collaborations developed through sustained dialogue, field research, and deep community engagement. In fy2025, the organization supported the following artist-led projects: o langit lupa (heaven and earth). Active cultures culminated this multi-season collaboration with artists ami lien and enzo camacho with the publication of reclaiming the land, a collection of conversations with agrarian reform leaders in negros, philippines, foregrounding the ongoing struggle for land justice.o colectivo amasijo: a circular offering. Produced in collaboration with the brick and artcenter, this performance and communal meal guided approximately 100 participants through collective engagement with ingredients foraged from the milpa and the hills of pasadena, culminating in an offering of endemic foods harvested by the artists during their agricultural journey in the yucatan.o fungal teachings / mycelial residency. A multiyear collaboration with artist yasmine ostendorf-rodriguez investigating ecologies of mutualism through research, fieldwork, and public gatherings. In fy2025, the project continued building mycelial networks among ecological art practitioners in los angeles and beyond.o summer solstice. Active cultures launched its inaugural annual summer solstice event at the audubon center at debs park: a seasonal convergence of sound, food, and land-based ritual featuring artists and chefs jihee kim, eva aguila, olive kimoto, living earth, and herb club la. The event established a new annual platform for seasonal public gathering rooted in ecological cycles.ongoing public programsunder curator nanette orly's leadership, active cultures launched two new ongoing public series in fy2025, alongside community-facing programs in response to immediate local need: o seeds: a film series. Launched at now instant, this new series opened with wild relatives by jumana manna, accompanied by a community conversation with nina raj of the altadena seed library exploring biodiversity and cultural preservation.o book club. A new bi-monthly reading series convened in parks and gardens across los angeles, exploring texts on the aesthetics of food, culinary resilience and kinship, alternative foodways, land rights and stewardship, and the intersection of agriculture and technology.o seed sorting night with altadena seed library. A hands-on volunteer workshop hosted by nina raj in which participants cleaned, sorted, and labeled seeds for seed banking and community distribution.o community produce drive at the hollywood farmers' market. A one-day collaboration with food forward, food access la, and chef minh phan to collect and distribute fresh market produce to communities affected by snap cuts.organizational accomplishmentsfy2025 marked significant progress toward the benchmarks established in active cultures' fy2024-2027 strategic plan: o staffing and compensation. Active cultures grew to a three-person, full-time leadership team--executive director laura fried, curator nanette orly, and director o

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 58.4%; rating input score 58
• Program expense ratio: 68.9%; rating input score 69
• Fundraising efficiency: $5.57 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 23; 23rd 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: 15.3%; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.38; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.07; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 30.8%; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 17.9% per year; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 14.2% per year; rating input score 100; 79th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 9.6% per year; rating input score 100; 61st percentile among comparable filings