Art Buddies
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 411797876
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2010–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2024
- Location
- Minneapolis, MN, USA
- Phone
- 6123346004
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Adult, Child Matching Programs
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $123,817
- Expenses
- $161,773
- Assets
- $121,795
- Liabilities
- $24,193
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
20 people listed
People named in this filing
- HEIDI RICH (EXEC DIR & P)
- KAILEY MO BECKER (DIRECTOR)
- KARISA BUECHNER (EXEC BOARD S)
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
The mission of art buddies is to bring the power of one-to-one creative mentoring to twin cities children from high need schools and communities. Art buddies helps children connect the child with their self and their community, to give them agency over their artistry and ideas, to inspire creative expression and sense of personal agency, and to help the child build a strong sense of creative confidence. Art buddies annually pairs 200 creative mentors, one-to-one with 200 twin cities public school kids (ages 8-11). Each program features 8-10 weekly workshops. Mentors also help the kids develop writing, project planning and storytelling skills by creating a special journal of their art buddies experience called a buddy book. At the end of each program, the kids become "stars" posing with their creations and mentors for portraits by professional photographers. The children celebrate their accomplishments with a parade and presentation for schoolmates, teachers, family and friends. The art
What it reported doing in 2024
In fiscal year 2024-2025, art buddies served over 200 children, ages 8-11, from high need schools and communities in minneapolis and st. Paul. Art buddies provides its free creative mentor programming and art education to schools at which at least 75% of the student body receives free and reduced lunch program, as the metric for poverty. Any scholar at a participating school is eligible to participate in our free program. 90% of participating children were children of color. We recruited 200 creative mentors to work one-on-one with the children. We produced eight after- school art buddies programs, at our partner schools: whittier international elementary, lucy laney elementary, hall stem academy, and bancroft elementary. Our mentors helped the children do the following: 1. Form a positive relationship with a creative adult 2. Discover their creative potential and learn applied artistic skills 3. Boost their self-esteem by creating something ambitious and unique 4. Increase their motivation to learn by giving them an exciting reason to come to school and explore 5. Learn the creative process of conceiving, planning and producing 6. Explore creative career possibilities the children's teachers and principals continually confirm the positive impact of the art buddies program. The teachers observed student improvement in problem-solving ability, behavior, attitude, motivation to learn, school attendance and social skills. They report the mastery students develop in art buddies, as well as the positive relationships they form with creative adults that enhance their students' self-esteem.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% 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 revenue has declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 94
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 20
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 83%; rating input score 83
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -30.7%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.75; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.2; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 39.8%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 1.5% per year; rating input score 100; 35th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -0.6% per year; rating input score 0; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 0.8% per year; rating input score 100; 30th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 83% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $134K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 20 people listed
- Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 13 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 4/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 50/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 7/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 18/100.