Art Students League of Denver
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 841042289
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2012–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Denver, CO, US
- Phone
- 303-778-6990
- Rating
- 77
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $2,564,760
- Expenses
- $2,648,755
- Assets
- $2,135,103
- Liabilities
- $513,619
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
17 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- GERALDINE KIM (PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- RACHEL BASYE (EXECUTIVE DI): $176,356 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Asld offers courses and programs that foster growth for artists at every level.
What it reported doing in 2024
Other programs: over the past few years, asld has pursued partnerships with a variety of community organizations to provide art experiences to individuals who may not otherwise have the opportunity. Some of these partnerships include the denver public library, where asld faculty artists teach hands-on art workshops in libraries to intergenerational audiences; jefferson county schools, where faculty teach art teachers studio techniques; and with a variety of other art organizations to offer joint programming. Revenue for these programs comes from a combination of grants and registration fees. Expenses include wages and supplies. Asld hosts a variety of exhibitions at our historic grant street building and in partnership with various creative spaces throughout the community. Representing the diversity of the thriving denver arts community, our exhibitions also provide an opportunity to examine current trends and purchase original fine art from faculty, students and celebrated artists from across the u.s. Each year, the visiting artist series brings several notable artists to asld to teach master classes, which supplement existing ongoing classes and workshops. This extraordinary opportunity allows students and artists from the community to work and learn from some of today's most significant working artists.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Other-operating. 61% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
- 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 expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 78
- Transparency & Controls: 71
- Accountability: 88
- Sustainability: 30
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 85.5%; rating input score 86
- Program expense ratio: 83.2%; rating input score 83
- Fundraising efficiency: $6.88 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Pass
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- 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: 87.5%; rating input score 88; 19th 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: -3.3%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.81; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.24; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 6.7%; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 5.4% per year; rating input score 100; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 4.5% per year; rating input score 100; 38th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 1.1% per year; rating input score 100; 16th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 10 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 3 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 85.5% of revenue deployed · 83.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 14 of 16 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $2.2M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $176K · 17 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 31 of 32 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 12 filing years from 2012 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 26/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 24/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 30/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 40/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 43/100.