Community Busk
Legal name: Community Busk Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 994529215
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2025–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2024
- Location
- Great Barrington, MA, USA
- Phone
- 9177428930
- Rating
- 65
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Community Improvement, Capacity Building N.E.C.
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $233,316
- Expenses
- $200,591
- Assets
- $36,365
- Liabilities
- $3,640
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
3 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Eugene Carr (President)
Highest reported compensation
- Eugene Carr (President): $9,600 total reported compensation
- Chadd Dietz (Director): $600 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Community Busk aims to enhance community engagement and economic development in the United States by inspiring and training small towns and municipalities to create dynamic downtown street arts/music festivals, modeled on the success of Berkshire Busk!
What it reported doing in 2025
The organization produces a 10-weekend street music and arts festival in downtown Great Barrington, held every Friday and Saturday evening from July 27 through August 30, 2025. The festival presents live musical performances and visual arts programming that are free and open to the public. The program supports local and regional artists, promotes community engagement, and contributes to the cultural and economic vitality of the downtown business district.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 90% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 52
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 72
- Sustainability: 39
- Growth: NotEnoughData
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 54.8%; rating input score 55
- Program expense ratio: 63.8%; rating input score 64
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 3 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 33
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 14%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.18; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.1; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 5.1%; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: Limited
- Asset growth: Limited
Details
- What they do: 5 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 2 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 54.8% of revenue deployed · 63.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 3 of 3 board members independent · 3 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $128K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $10K · 3 people listed
- Consistency: 25 of 25 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- 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.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 55/100.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 8 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 11/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 22/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 31/100.