Chattanooga Design Studio

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
473183435
IRS 990 coverage
2016–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2015
Location
Chattanooga, TN, USA
Phone
4236644837
Rating
87
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Community Coalitions

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,723,530
Expenses
$2,307,504
Assets
$1,212,369
Liabilities
$486,083

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

Leadership & pay

14 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • ERIC MYERS (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • ERIC MYERS (PRESIDENT): $120,362 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Chattanooga design studio seeks to elevate the quality of life for all citizens through guidance, collaboration, innovation, and education that promotes livable, accessible, walkable, and humane urban design.

What it reported doing in 2024

A high-quality public realm: chattanooga design studio collaborates with several partners and municipal institutions to advance and guide the design of a high-quality public realm. The organization focuses on streets, parks and other public spaces while also helping to shape the private investments that contribute to a vibrant public realm. Projects are undertaken as priorities of a municipality to investigate and are conducted with citizen input and enormous communication and collaboration. Projects such as montague park, waterfront, broad street, optimizing city street, and civic center all aim to provide inspiration to improvements of the public realm.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 76% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
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. Total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 85
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 91
  • Sustainability: 48
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 79%; rating input score 79
  • Program expense ratio: 93.3%; rating input score 93
  • Fundraising efficiency: $104.01 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 87; 87th 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: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • 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: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 15.3%; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.53; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.4; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 5.2%; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 21% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 18.4% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 17.4% per year; rating input score 100; 79th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 79% of revenue deployed · 93.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 13 of 14 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $2.2M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $120K · 14 people listed
  • Highest-paid contractors: 2 contractors listed · $1.1M reported
  • Consistency: 27 of 27 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 8 filing years from 2016 to 2024
  • 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 — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 18/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Whistleblower policy not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 27/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 52/100.