Charles W Bowers Museum Corporation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 330106161
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2014–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Santa Ana, CA, USA
- Phone
- 7145673600
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Museum, Museum Activities
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $7,848,854
- Expenses
- $7,441,759
- Assets
- $37,588,067
- Liabilities
- $1,576,076
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
31 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- SEAN O'HARROW (PRESIDENT AND CEO)
- THUY NGUYEN (SR. VICE PRESIDENT ADMISTRATION/CFO)
- PAUL DOWDLE (VICE PRESIDENT INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY)
Highest reported compensation
- SEAN O'HARROW (PRESIDENT AND CEO): $299,514 total reported compensation
- THUY NGUYEN (SR. VICE PRESIDENT ADMISTRATION/CFO): $218,137 total reported compensation
- TIANLONG JIAO (VP OF COLLECTION & PROGRAMS CHIEF CURATOR): $150,230 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The bowers museum enriches lives through the world's finest arts and cultures.
What it reported doing in 2024
Research and collectionsthe museum maintains a collection of approximately 90,000 objects. Over the years, the museum has acquired significant holdings of north american indian, pre-columbian, african, and oceanic cultural art and artifacts. Activities surrounding this collection include restoration, preservation and registration of all relevant data on computerized database. Ongoing research and cataloguing efforts have produced numerous publications and articles. The museum holds the most significant collection of mccloskey paintings in the world. The museum has established a website and has ambitious plans to make available over that medium images and information of interest to the general public and scholar alike.
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
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: 73
- Transparency & Controls: 74
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 60
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 78%; rating input score 78
- Program expense ratio: 75.3%; rating input score 75
- Fundraising efficiency: $12.23 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 5.2%; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 5.05; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 10.8%; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 2.1% per year; rating input score 100; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 3.7% per year; rating input score 100; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 7.4% per year; rating input score 100; 47th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 78% of revenue deployed · 75.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 27 of 27 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $5.6M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $300K · 31 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 32 of 32 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 11 filing years from 2014 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 4 filed money-flow records
- 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.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 44/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 51/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Document-retention policy not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 28/100.