Childrens Art Studio
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 260807649
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2017, Form 990-N 2014
- Location
- Washington, DC, USA
- Phone
- 2022471155
- Rating
- 65
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Arts Education
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $137,174
- Expenses
- $135,665
- Assets
- $1,767
- Liabilities
- $2,731
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
7 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- NICOLE BRANDES (CHAIR): $86,000 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 Children's Art Studio is founded on the belief that children will reap tremendous developmental, intellectual and emotional gains from making art, and that this opportunity should be made available to all. The Children's Art Studio offers professional workshops, classes and camps for children three years old and up.
What it reported doing in 2024
The Childrens Art Studio, Washington DC, provides direct creative arts instruction to over 450 young students per week and professional development workshops for 60 teachers from 11 schools throughout the academic year. The organization is founded on the belief that young people reap tremendous emotional, developmental and intellectual gains from making art and that this opportunity should be made available to all. The Children's Art Studio has a strategic partnership with Educare, located in the Parkside neighborhood in Ward 7 and the Town Hall Education Arts Recreation Campus in Ward 8. Our work with young children aims to eliminate the opportunity gap to access quality arts instruction for those experiencing poverty in Washington, DC. By creating the conditions to deeply engage in creating art, the program promotes growth across a wide range of domains, producing positive advancement for children's learning in the classroom and beyond. Our students experience the overall benefits of creativity, which brings a sense of calm, stability and joy.Our professional development workshops give teachers from every part of the city the opportunity to develop new skills and processes, and incorporate art making pedagogy into their overall lesson plans. Teachers receive individualized coaching to improve their capacity and fidelity. Teachers are encouraged to shift the social-emotional learning environment in their classrooms through engaging and structured art lessons, and to enhance student learning by using a rich variety of materials and methods.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 87% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- 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 - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 59
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Accountability: 63
- Sustainability: 21
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 62.6%; rating input score 63
- Program expense ratio: 63.3%; rating input score 63
- Fundraising efficiency: $5.13 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 1 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 12
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 1.1%; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.01; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 1.55; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 63.4%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -6.3% per year; rating input score 0; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 3.3% per year; rating input score 100; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 8.3% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 62.6% of revenue deployed · 63.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 1 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $86K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $86K · 7 people listed
- Consistency: 20 of 21 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 8 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 6 of 7 not reported.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 23/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 2/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 42/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 2/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 3/100.