Astrophysical Research Consortium

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
911265806
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Seattle, WA, USA
Phone
2066160035
Rating
72
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Astronomy

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$5,210,557
Expenses
$11,175,826
Assets
$34,675,831
Liabilities
$3,028,595

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

Leadership & pay

19 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • Alim Patten (Business Manager): $143,288 total reported compensation
  • Michael Crenshaw (Board Chair): $12,500 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Astrophysical Research Consortium operates two telescopes at the Apache Point Observatory. There is a 3.5-meter general purpose telescope and a survey specialized 2.5-meter Sloan Foundation telescope. The telescopes have distinct purposes in the service of their constituencies.

What it reported doing in 2024

The 3.5-meter telescope benefits the research faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, and public outreach programs of each member institution. Using innovative remote software, astronomers can operate and collect data from anywhere in the world. The telescope has a suite of cameras and spectrographs that serve a wide variety of scientific endeavors, resulting in more than 50 refereed science results being published each year. The telescope is also used regularly for a NASA-funded lunar laser ranging project. There is an active outreach program at the observatory and at member institutions.The 2.5-meter telescope, which operates the SDSS-IV and SDSS-V survey projects, had a productive year. The SDSS-IV project was completed in December 2021. The SDSS-V survey began in October 2020 (slightly delayed due to COVID19) and is still fund-raising (trying to have more member institutions joined). A new corrector lens was built for the Sloan telescope. A new robotic fiber positioning system ("The FPS") was installed and commissioned at APO in November and December of 2021 and a second FPS was installed and commissioned at LCO in August and September of 2022. Operations are ongoing at APO and at LCO. The Local Volume Mapper Instrument (LVMi) has been installed at LCO starting February of 2023. LVMi operations began in 2023. Since December 2024 LVMi has been robotically operated.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 86% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program 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 most voting board members are independent. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and the filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 88
  • Transparency & Controls: 44
  • Accountability: 92
  • Sustainability: 39
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 95.9%; rating input score 96
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Missing
  • Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Grant itemization coverage: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 94.4%; rating input score 94; 25th 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: -114.5%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.1; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.09; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 1.4%; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 1% per year; rating input score 100; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -0.9% per year; rating input score 0; 9th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 3.8% per year; rating input score 100; 28th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 95.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 17 of 18 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $10.7M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $143K · 19 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $5.3M reported
  • Consistency: 26 of 26 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
  • 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 — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
  • High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
  • High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 1/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.