Arts Center

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
510198497
IRS 990 coverage
2009–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Carrboro, NC, USA
Phone
9199292787
Rating
86
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Arts, Cultural Organizations - Multipurpose

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,174,778
Expenses
$2,345,282
Assets
$8,192,470
Liabilities
$5,207,154

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

18 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • WENDY SMITH (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • WENDY SMITH (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $81,608 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The artscenter exists in order to educate and inspire artistic creativity and to enrich the lives of people of all ages.

What it reported doing in 2025

The artscenter's youth program is paramount to the mission since nearly half of the artscenter's patrons are under age 18. For over forty years, artscamp has offered week-long summer camp sessions for grades k-9, all taught by local professional teaching artists. Over these nine summer weeks, area youth explore over 150 arts education classes. Camps focus on skill development and discovering creative voices. In summer 2025, artscamp awarded 23 one-week scholarships and served 1,475 children. Sessions included african drumming for grades k-2, narrative art for grades 3-5, and ceramics for grades 6-9.youth afterschool provides arts enrichment and social emotional support during critical afterschool hours for chapel hill-carrboro youth grades k-5. Students learn a variety of artistic styles, explore cultural diversity, delve into social justice issues, and develop social skills by working in peer groups. Students participate in new art classes each month exploring techniques such as mixed media, printing & dying, and art lessons inspired by the masters. In 2025, ninety-seven students attended afterschool for either a full five-day week or a three-day week. Youth afterschool offered 7 full-time scholarships this year.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 64% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 97% 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 83
  • Transparency & Controls: 94
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 37
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 94.5%; rating input score 95
  • Program expense ratio: 87.5%; rating input score 88
  • Fundraising efficiency: $3.26 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 8; 8th 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; 75th 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: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -7.8%; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.49; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.64; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 3.5%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 2.9% per year; rating input score 100; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 2.6% per year; rating input score 100; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 18.4% per year; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 94.5% of revenue deployed · 87.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 17 of 17 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $2.1M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $82K · 18 people listed
  • Consistency: 30 of 30 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 15 filing years from 2009 to 2025
  • 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.

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 8/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 12/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 12/100.