Art Opportunities Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 311665900
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Cincinnati, OH, USA
- Phone
- 5133333602
- Rating
- 68
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Arts Education
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $5,641,121
- Expenses
- $3,658,780
- Assets
- $8,926,265
- Liabilities
- $2,006,556
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
25 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Lisa Saia (Vice President)
- Lauren Hannan-Shafer (Former Board President)
- Laura Humphrey (President)
Highest reported compensation
- Colleen Houston (CE0 & Artistic Director): $174,957 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To create community driven public art and launch careers for youth and artists.
What it reported doing in 2024
Apprenticeship Program: ArtWorks Apprentices are teen and young adult seasonal employees, who work side-by-side and learn from professional Artists and peers while creating public art and community impact projects. This program is for artists ages 14 - 21. Public Art Services & Community Engagement: ArtWorks facilitates public art commissions, calls-to-artists, and more, to create high quality art outcomes that the community can benefit from for decades. ArtWorks often invests in centering the vision of residents and neighborhood leaders. Community engagement comes in many forms, from attending Community Council meetings, getting design input from residents, activating public spaces with art-making activities, and more, always with the goal of creating artworks that are responsive to community histories and current needs. 386 employed professional, teen and young adult artists and arts administrators, and contracted creatives 203 teen and young adult participants (Apprentices, Studio Artists, Gallery Fellows) 47,502 hours of artistic mentorship 8,302 hours of professional development/career training 54 community partnerships 281 works of art created in communities and in the V2 gallery 38 large-scale murals and public art projects 11 neighborhoods directly invested in through public art 316 residents and visitors to the region who attended ArtWorks mural tours 24M residents and visitors who had the chance to experience ArtWorks murals
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 74% 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 45
- Transparency & Controls: 77
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 72
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 40.9%; rating input score 41
- Program expense ratio: 61.9%; rating input score 62
- Fundraising efficiency: $4.78 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 94.7%; rating input score 95; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 35.1%; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.44; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.22; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 4.8%; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -1% per year; rating input score 0; 11th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 8% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 16.1% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 40.9% of revenue deployed · 61.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 25 of 25 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $2.3M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $175K · 25 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $826K reported
- Consistency: 36 of 37 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2009 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 41/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 16/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 41/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 55/100.