Chicago Collections Consortium Inc Nfp
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 455606146
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2019–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2022
- Location
- Chicago, IL, USA
- Phone
- 7733257587
- Rating
- 82
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Museum, Museum Activities
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $226,152
- Expenses
- $219,015
- Assets
- $295,905
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
12 people listed
People named in this filing
- RHEA BALLARD-THROWER (DIRECTOR)
- CHRIS BROWN (DIRECTOR)
- WILL HANSEN (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. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Chicago collections consortium (ccc) is a collaboration among libraries, museums, and allied organizations working together to collect, preserve, and share freely, openly, and equitably the history and culture of chicago with the world. Chicago collections envisions a world where the history of chicago is made accessible to diverse communities to foster understanding, inspiration, and knowledge creation through engagement with primary sources.
What it reported doing in 2024
Programs and outreach the portal, known as explore chicago collections (https://explore.chicagocollections.org/), is the organization's cornerstone initiative that was made public in october 2015. The portal serves as a free, centralized, web-based search engine and record-finding tool that allows researchers, teachers, students, and the general public to locate or access over 100,000 maps, photos, letters, and other archival materials held at ccc's member institutions. This last year had the largest percentage of new users to explore, averaging 90% first time users. These users came from 167 countries, though 30% still originated from the chicagoland area. Our visitors also explored explore even more this year, with a big jump in our individual site views, up 37%. Sixteen free public programs were offered virtually and in person. Programs were recorded and reshared on ccc's youtube channel attracting an even wider audience. 2024-25 programs included a discussion with chicago covenants, mapping indigenous chicago, dear rhoda-a play in two acts, by donna russell and david ranney, creating and preserving disorder: royko, daley, and the 1968 dnc, political collections in the archives of chicago public library, a discussion with chicago's new directors, indigenous people and the chicago portage, cait coker on "we are each other's harvest": gwendolyn brooks and the formation of the black literary canon, a discussion with the curators of ccc's latest digital exhibit a snapshot of chicago art fairs: 1948-2004, the impact and importance of chicago's art fairs and festivals: a discussion with chicago artists, conversations with chicago collections: women and leadership archives loyola university chicago, a discussion with author dr. Nicole m. Brown, from the archives: chicago history through photographs, from the archives: preserving your family history, conversations with chicago collections northwestern university transportation library. Partnerships ccc was proud to continue its partnerships with art design chicago, caxton club, chicago department of cultural affairs, chicago architecture biennial, and the black metropolis research consortium. Membership at this time, chicago collections has 64 unique members all possessing diverse archival collections. The addition of two new participating members, the leather archives and museum as well as rosalind franklin university to ccc's community is an example of the variety of organizations bound together for the promotion of and sharing of chicago's rich and diverse history. Organizational awareness ccc was represented at a vast assortment of promotional events and conferences. Ccc shared its consortia model at 7 conferences nationally and internationally. The work of ccc was presented at over 7 conferences this year. As we have undertaken more conference presentations, our international audience has grown by 10%. Development efforts in addition to generous individual contributions, funding from the Illinois arts council agency, gaylord and dorothy donnelley foundation, richard h. Driehaus foundation, terra foundation for american art, and wintrust bank has allowed chicago collections to continue its work in providing free and open access to member archival collections while promoting these materials through free virtual public programs and events. Interns ccc continued its offering of paid internships to students. This year ccc employed 2 undergraduate students from depaul university. These internships supported ccc's executive director with outreach and program promotions while also bringing awareness of careers in archival fields.
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 - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 79
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 76
- Sustainability: 54
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 82.5%; rating input score 82
- Program expense ratio: 85.2%; rating input score 85
- Fundraising efficiency: $14.59 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 49; 49th 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 3 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 43
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- 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: 3.2%; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.35; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 8.3% per year; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 2.3% per year; rating input score 100; 37th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 16.5% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 82.5% of revenue deployed · 85.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 12 of 12 board members independent · 3 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $187K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 12 people listed
- Consistency: 22 of 22 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2019 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.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 6 not reported.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 49/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 47/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 49/100.