Art Council of Greater New Haven Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
066082782
IRS 990 coverage
2011–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2023
Location
New Haven, CT, USA
Phone
2037722788
Rating
90
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Arts Council/Agency

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,201,436
Expenses
$1,476,627
Assets
$604,625
Liabilities
$224,753

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

Leadership & pay

14 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • HOPE CHAVEZ (EXECUTIVE DI): $100,982 total reported compensation
  • WINTER MARSHALL (OPERATIONS D): $87,224 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 arts council champions a diverse, regional arts community where creativity thrives, believing that art, culture, and creative expression are fundamental human rights. As the leading regional nonprofit arts agency, we provide leadership and advocacy for artists and arts organizations throughout the greater new haven community. Publisher of the arts paper, the arts council provides free, critical support service, community coordination, as well as free learning opportunities and internships to thousands of artists, individual arts organizations, and residents every year. All our programs and services are 100% free for our community.

What it reported doing in 2024

The arts council continues to develop both culturalyst (a website which hosts an artist directory as well as creative opportunities) and the online skillbox (an educational hub offering free videos to enhance artists craft and build upon the gifts they possess) into core programs in order to equitably distribute resources and provide increased support and impact to artists. In addition, our free space, the sandbox, remains essential to the creative community. The youth arts journalism initiative (yaji) - a free education program for high school students to learn and practice grassroots journalism - as well as the arts paper, the editorially independent arm of the arts council that seeks to celebrate, explore, and investigate the creative sector in greater new haven - remain vital programs. We successfully concluded our partnerships with the mellon foundation for our artist corps program which provided funding to artists, as well as mentorship and guidance for their artistic practice and projects as well as with the cities of west haven and new haven to regrant arpa funding to artists, arts organizations, and creative businesses with the goal of stimulating arts and culture activity within those communities. We strive to continue grantmaking initiatives as a core program of the arts council.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 84% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 71% for direct work, and 29% for grants.

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: 93
  • Transparency & Controls: 94
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 15
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 91.5%; rating input score 92
  • Fundraising efficiency: $23.59 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
    • 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: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -22.9%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.41; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.37; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 12.7%; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 13.2% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 8.5% per year; rating input score 100; 61st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 3.8% per year; rating input score 100; 33rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 91.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 12 of 12 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.4M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $101K · 14 people listed
  • Consistency: 31 of 31 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 14 filing years from 2011 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
  • 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 8/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 19/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 21/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 28/100.