Ames Town and Gown Chamber Music Association

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
421068622
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2019–2024
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2024
Location
Ames, IA, USA
Phone
5154501019
Rating
88
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$86,577
Expenses
$89,380
Assets
$46,617
Liabilities
$1,049

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

12 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Joseph Merchant (President)
  • Paul Sacks (Vice-President)

People named in this filing

  • Joseph Merchant (President)
  • William Dilla (Treasurer)
  • Paula Forrest (Artistic Director)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Presentation of chamber music concerts and related educational activities.

What it reported doing in 2024

Presented 5 in-person concerts. These included a group of award-winning vocalists from the Young Concert Artists Program, the Isidore String Quartet (winners of the Banff String Quartet competition), a group of Ames High and Iowa State Alumni who presented a "Musical Homecoming" concert, pianist Zhenni-Li Cohen, and violinist Kevin Zhu. In addition, we sponsored outreach activities for Ames Middle School students, Iowa State University piano students, and middle and high school string students from the Ames area. An average of 160 people attended each concert. There were a total of 150 participants and an additional 50 audience observers in total for the three outreach events.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 69% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
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

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 100
  • Transparency & Controls: 82
  • Sustainability: 31
  • Growth: 80

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 99.9%; rating input score 100

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Limited

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -3.2%; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.52; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 19.6%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 13.5% per year; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 0.2% per year; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -5.9% per year; rating input score 0; 23rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 99.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $89K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 12 people listed
  • Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 2 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2019 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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 — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 39/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 30/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 8/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 25/100.