Colorado Black Arts Festival
Legal name: Colorado Celebration of African American Arts and Culture
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 271028811
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2021
- Location
- Denver, CO, USA
- Phone
- 3033068672
- Rating
- 85
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Arts, Cultural Organizations - Multipurpose
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $331,142
- Expenses
- $300,353
- Assets
- $132,790
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
6 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JALEESA MCINTOSH (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
- INDIA EASELY (BOARD CHAIR/PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- JALEESA MCINTOSH (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $5,000 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To celebrate African American arts, culture, and community through a vibrant, three-day festival featuring live music, visual art, cultural storytelling, and food that reflects the rich traditions of the African diaspora.
What it reported doing in 2024
The Colorado black arts festival is an annual community event that showcased 150 visual and performing artists in denver. The purpose of the festival is to educate and celebrate the contributions of african american arts and culture have had in Colorado. The organization seeks to instill pride of culture and self-esteem to residences across Colorado. The festival welcomes 20,000+ attendees over a three-day weekend.
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 total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 92
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 69
- Sustainability: 48
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 87.9%; rating input score 88
- Program expense ratio: 96.8%; rating input score 97
- Fundraising efficiency: $453.97 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 95; 95th 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: 2 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 25
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- 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: 9.3%; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.44; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 1.7%; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 14.6% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 8.9% per year; rating input score 100; 69th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -2.1% per year; rating input score 0; 18th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 87.9% of revenue deployed · 96.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 2 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $291K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $5K · 6 people listed
- Consistency: 23 of 23 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2020 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- High — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 7 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 22/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 59/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 36/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.