Co-Lab Projects
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 453627986
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2014–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2020, Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2013
- Location
- Austin, TX, USA
- Phone
- 5123008217
- Rating
- 80
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Visual Arts Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $185,434
- Expenses
- $128,917
- Assets
- $483,225
- Liabilities
- $292,452
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Sean Gaulager (President)
People named in this filing
- Sean Gaulager (President)
- Christopher Burch (Secretary)
- Austin Nelsen (Treasurer)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Co-Lab Projects is an artist-run organization dedicated to providing resources, education, and exhibition space to artists that produce contemporary works of art, installation, and performance. Through collaboration and engagement, Co-Lab Projects encourages artistic exploration and dialogue within the community.
What it reported doing in 2025
Through collaboration and engagement, Co-Lab Projects encouraged artistic exploration and dialogue within the community.2025 programs included:* Cowboy XMAS - The Holy Trinity (Dec 6, 2025)* "Aint Hold Much / Aint Too Much to Hol (Nov 15, 2025 Dec 13, 2025)* "A Space in Which People Are Free To Move and Birds To Fly" : Mark Menjvar (Sep 13, 2025 Oct 25, 2025)* Co-Lab's 17th Birthday Bash and Benefit Concert (Jul 10, 2025 Jul 11, 2025)* "TERRA FORMA (Jun 14, 2025 Jul 19, 2025)* "The Unexpected Product of Labor (Two Hammers without a Sickle)" : Mauricio Alejo (Apr 19, 2025 May 31, 2025)* "Sobremesa": Fugaz (Apr 17, 2025)* "Music for a Cyborg Piano" a performance featuring Smokey Emery and Uxelite (Mar 15, 2025)* "Tethered Ashes" : Juan Cisneros (Mar 1, 2025 Mar 29, 2025)
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent revenue detail to tell how this nonprofit funds its work.
- 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 - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of total spending goes to programs. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and liabilities are high compared with assets.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 63
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 68
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 53.8%; rating input score 54
- Program expense ratio: 77.4%; rating input score 77
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 30.5%; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.75; rating input score 92; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.61; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 35.1%; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 3.2% per year; rating input score 100; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 4% per year; rating input score 100; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 21.1% per year; rating input score 100; 79th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 53.8% of revenue deployed · 77.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $100K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
- Consistency: 7 of 7 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 10 filing years from 2014 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 5 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.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 54/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 7/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 10/100.