Aesthetic Realism Foundation
Legal name: Aesthetic Realism Foundation Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 510179690
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- New York, NY, USA
- Phone
- 212.777.4490
- Rating
- 79
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Standard
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $431,804
- Expenses
- $493,361
- Assets
- $3,693,895
- Liabilities
- $21,769
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Margot Carpenter (Executive Director)
Highest reported compensation
- Barbara Allen (Administrative Officer): $42,697 total reported compensation
- Carrie Wilson (Director): $35,313 total reported compensation
- Ernest Defilippis (Administrative Officer): $34,549 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The Aesthetic Realism Foundation is a not-for-profit educational foundation. It presents the principles of Aesthetic Realism, the philosophy founded in 1941 by the distinguished American poet and critic Eli Siegel. Through classes, consultations, public seminars, dramatic and musical presentations, and the international journal 'The Rightness of Aesthetic Realism: A Periodical', the Foundation enables people of all ages to understand themselves newly.
What it reported doing in 2024
Presentations: public seminars and dramatic and musical presentations, all based on the principles of aesthetic realism. Seminars include such subjects as love, ambition, parenting; groundbreaking talks by artists and scholars on this new way of seeing the arts, people, and reality itself. The aesthetic realism theatre company offers pioneering musical and dramatic productions, from shakespeare to rock 'n' roll, with performance and comment.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 79
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Accountability: 72
- Sustainability: 41
- Growth: 20
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 90.2%; rating input score 90
- Program expense ratio: 76.5%; rating input score 77
- Fundraising efficiency: $7.67 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 32; 32nd 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: Yes; rating input score 100
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 70%; rating input score 70; 19th 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: NotApplicable
- 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: -14.3%; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 7.49; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 22.8%; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -0.3% per year; rating input score 0; 29th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -3% per year; rating input score 0; 14th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 3.1% per year; rating input score 100; 38th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 3 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 90.2% of revenue deployed · 76.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 7 of 10 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 6 filed program accomplishments · $378K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $43K · 10 people listed
- Consistency: 26 of 26 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and related organizations
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2009 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 4 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.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 32/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 18/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 16/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 49/100.