Blackbird Arts

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
474234774
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2016–2017
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2017, Form 990-N 2015
Location
Traverse City, MI, USA
Phone
2314218085
Rating
82
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Cultural, Ethnic Awareness

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$120,879
Expenses
$131,638
Assets
$6,110
Liabilities
$16,190

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2017. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

People named in this filing

  • Melissa Johnson (Executive Dir.)
  • Bill Paladino (Director)
  • Lynn Geiger (Director)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2017. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Blackbird Arts is a creative force for inclusive arts education and innovative community involvement.

What it reported doing in 2017

Blackbird Arts is an inclusive arts education studio focused on community engagement through the arts. We have a year-round arts program for children, families, and adults with the following objectives: strengthening the creative opportunities for all individualsregardless of ability, location or economic status bringing professional teaching artists to community centers, nursing centers, parks, and other nontraditional settings creating collaborative public art designed and created by the community, for the community. Our studio is housed within a 3500 square foot studio space, includes a ceramics studio with onsite kiln, a screenprinting studio, letterpress and book arts program, exhibition space and arts classroom. Blackbird Arts offers studio classes for children as young as two years with a parent, through adults. These programs are led by professional, degreed teaching artistsranging from ceramic artists and metalsmiths, to printmakers and painters. Blackbird Arts program served over 4,100 hands-on art opportunities in 2017. Blackbird Arts provided programs in 11 schools elementary, middle and high school. We average 20 classes weekly. Blackbird Arts builds the capacity for other organizations to integrate arts into their programming. In 2017, Blackbird Arts had partnerships with 12 other nonprofit organizations. In 2017, The Community Arts program created public art for Empty Bowls, Traverse City Film Festival, SEEDS, Art Rapids Sculpture Park, and the Cherryland Humane Society.

Operating model

Revenue model
Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent revenue detail to tell how this nonprofit funds its work.
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

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: 89
  • Transparency & Controls: 82
  • Sustainability: 17
  • Growth: 80

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 92.5%; rating input score 92
  • Program expense ratio: 84.9%; rating input score 85

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Limited

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -8.9%; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.05; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 2.65; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 1.9% per year; rating input score 100; 39th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 10.4% per year; rating input score 100; 70th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -80.3% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 92.5% of revenue deployed · 84.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $112K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 8 people listed
  • Consistency: 7 of 7 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 2 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 2 filing years from 2016 to 2017
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • 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.

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 15/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 6/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 2/100.
  • High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.