Cue Art Foundation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 542064462
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2014–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- New York, NY, USA
- Phone
- 2122063583
- Rating
- 83
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Art Museums
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $297,378
- Expenses
- $524,313
- Assets
- $1,499,474
- Liabilities
- $162,984
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- THEODORE S BERGER (President)
- KATE BUCHANAN (Vice President)
Highest reported compensation
- JINNY KHANDUJA (Executive Direc): $121,244 total reported compensation
- AMANDA ADAMS-LOUIS (Director): $17,650 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
CUE Art Foundation is a visual arts organization dedicated to creating essential career and educational opportunities for emerging and underrecognized artists of all ages. Through exhibitions, arts education, and public programs, CUE provides artists, writers, students, and arts workers with meaningful experiences and resources that impact their careers and allow them to reach diverse audiences who benefit from exposure to new work. CUE carries out its mission through its core programs, which include solo and group exhibitions; mentorship andpublication opportunities for emerging writers; public events that bring artists together with the broader communities; and arts education for high school students.
What it reported doing in 2024
Writing Program: The Art Critic Mentorship Program (ACMP) pairs emerging writers with art critic mentors to produce original long-form critical essays about the work of artists exhibiting in solo and group exhibitions at CUE. The program is open to writers of any age in the early stages of their careers. Essays commissioned through the program are published by CUE in full-color print exhibition catalogues, which are distributed at the gallery and are also made available and promoted online on CUEs website and social media.
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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 84
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 89
- Sustainability: 26
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 76.3%; rating input score 76
- Fundraising efficiency: $7.36 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 31; 31st 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: 90%; rating input score 90; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -76.3%; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.86; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.11; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 26.5%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 1.6% per year; rating input score 100; 38th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -0.6% per year; rating input score 0; 21st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 0.2% per year; rating input score 100; 26th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 76.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 9 of 10 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $400K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $121K · 11 people listed
- Consistency: 25 of 25 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 10 filing years from 2014 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.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 31/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 3/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 13/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 25/100.