Cheekwood Estate & Gardens

What it reported doing in 2025

Art, exhibitions, and programming: cheekwood maintains permanent collections focused on american art from the 18th to mid-20th centuries as well as monumental outdoor sculpture. The institution also hosts significant temporary exhibitions and interactive educational experiences for all ages to complement its permanent and traveling exhibitions, both in cheekwood's historic mansion and museum, and across the estate grounds. During 2025, cheekwood hosted robert Indiana's "love" sculpture, one of the most celebrated works in the pop art movement, as part of its tradition to bring high-quality masterworks to nashville. In addition, it presented enchanted castles at cheekwood, featuring five large-scale castles. Cheekwood also offers an annual artist in residence program and interventions, which places contemporary works within the mansion's historic period rooms. Year-round public programs include workshops, classes, lectures, story times, youth summer camps, and live music and dance. Cheekwood hosts four annual cultural celebrations (el dia de los muertos, black arts bash, japanese moon viewing, and holi) and provides community and access initiatives for thousands of students, educators and families including through destination cheekwood field trips, cheekwood on the road, head start tots, and multiple free-admission programs. Cheekwood continually develops new initiatives to broaden its presence and impact on the greater community. Gardens: cheekwood's landscape supports both horticultural excellence and the display of outdoor contemporary art, helping ensure the estate's continued relevance. The historic grounds were designed by landscape architect bryant fleming and include woodlands, ponds and waterways, pastoral meadows, and 13 display gardens, including a japanese garden and a 1.5-mile woodland sculpture trail. Cheekwood's children's garden supports family programming across the literary, performing, and visual arts and includes a turtle habitat, studio and performance pavilions, and adventure paths. With more than 2,100 trees on the property, cheekwood has garnered national acclaim as an arbnet level ii accredited arboretum and a Tennessee urban forestry council center of excellence. Key tree collections include the nationally accredited cornus collection, the historic collection, and trees native to the southeastern united states. Other plant collections include daylilies, iris, natives, daffodils, ferns, herbs, hydrangeas, magnolias, redbuds, roses, and historic boxwoods. Ongoing improvements include significant enrichment to plant collections and new pathways and lighting to increase accessibility, and 100% of our garden waste is now recycled and returns to cheekwood as topsoil and compost. Our public interface for the living collections has been significantly enhanced via photographs and taxon information. This public database can be used by visitors to further their learning or as a resource for those who are not on property. In 2025, we had a drone flight to update and improve aerial imagery used to support living collections management and the gis program.each year, cheekwood hosts four seasonal gardens festivals - cheekwood in bloom, summertime at cheekwood, cheekwood harvest, and holiday lights - featuring garden displays, public programs, educational opportunities, and live performances. Cheekwood in bloom highlights a radiant display of azaleas, dogwoods, and more than a quarter-million spring tulips and flowers. Summertime at cheekwood showcases art and themed displays of annual flowers as well as thursday nights out, and the under the stars concert series. Cheekwood harvest offers a pumpkin village with pumpkin houses, a community scarecrow show, and thousands of pumpkins and chrysanthemums across the grounds. Winter programming includes holiday lights, a nashville holiday tradition featuring more than one million lights along a one-mile barrier-free path. In 2025, mansion rooms were again decorated by former

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 56.1%; rating input score 56
• Program expense ratio: 81.4%; rating input score 81
• Fundraising efficiency: $13.72 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
  • Compensation committee: Missing
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
  • Written employment contract: Missing
  • 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • 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: 37.8%; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.03; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.06; rating input score 75; 75th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 9.2%; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 7.1% per year; rating input score 100; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 7.4% per year; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 8.4% per year; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings