Blue River Arts Council Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
832074441
IRS 990 coverage
2021–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2020, Form 990-N 2018
Location
Crete, NE, USA
Phone
4026416599
Rating
86
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Standard
Sector
Arts Service Organizations and Activities

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$177,247
Expenses
$141,509
Assets
$2,010,208
Liabilities
$351,406

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

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Shaylene Smith (Executive Director)
  • Kristi Capek (President)
  • Michael Stehlik (Vice President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Shaylene Smith (Executive Director): $4,853 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 Blue River Arts Council is bridging cultures, building community, and boosting the economy by operating the Isis Theatre and providing fun and artistic adventures for all of our geographic area.

What it reported doing in 2025

Our arts-based progreamming still revolves primarily around coordination of art shows at the library in town and making our theatre venue available free of charge for an adult special-needs choir or local educational events for the high school or univerity. This, and all theatre programming, are only possible because we are able to leverage thousands of hours of volunteers who are teachers available to work daytime events in the summer and seniors who enjoy getting out of their homes and giving back to the community. As a result, we have 4-6 people with different backgrounds and unique interests and skills all interacting together. Every time we open the doors, we are building a strong and more vibrant community through this engagement.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
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 - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and liabilities are high compared with assets.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 75
  • Transparency & Controls: 100
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 67
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 70%; rating input score 70
  • Program expense ratio: 87.7%; rating input score 88
  • Fundraising efficiency: $29.5 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • 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; 64th 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: 20.2%; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 14.21; rating input score 93; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.17; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 3.4%; rating input score 32; 32nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 4% per year; rating input score 100; 46th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 18.6% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 41.2% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 70% of revenue deployed · 87.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $124K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $5K · 9 people listed
  • Consistency: 26 of 26 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2021 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.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 17/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 32/100.