Cultural Agents Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
473387610
IRS 990 coverage
2016–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
East Boston, MA, USA
Phone
6172708945
Rating
68
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Arts Education

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$137,055
Expenses
$88,409
Assets
$301,195
Liabilities
$0

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • JOSE LUIS FALCONI (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • JOSE LUIS FALCONI (PRESIDENT): $33,600 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

To promote divergent thinking of arts and humanities in the service of solutions to real life problems. In courses, conferences and community- based projects, we join a range of creative collaborators to feature art and interpretation as integral to active humanities, as catalysts for social change in order to advance creative solutions to social challenges in the united states and internationally. Along with public events, seminars and conferences to promote art and artful thinking as resources for leadership, provide training for educators at all levels to integrate art activities into academid teaching in order to promote high-order literacy, innovation, and citizenship.

What it reported doing in 2025

The teacher training program is called pre-texts. Pre-texts is a train- the-trainers pedagogy developed by the cultural agents initiative at harvard university, and available to outside partners through cultural agents, inc. The methodology combines three complementary goals of holistic education: high-order literacy, innovation, and citizenship. The simple protocol of pre-texts turns educators into facilitators for student-centered learning. Unlike conventional pedagogy (in which teachers pose questions and know answers), here the students formulate their own questions to a text and then speculate about possible responses. They also "go off on tangents" to connect independent reading with classroom texts. The program achieves "close reading" by stimulating a range of interpretations. It fosters autonomy and collaboration by students who re-purpose texts and other materials for participatory, eco-friendly, learning. The approach adjusts to the tastes and talents of participants who explore difficult texts as points of departure, pretexts for making art (painting, music, dance, theater, writing, technology, fashion, photography, cooking, etc.). As artists, students become users of challenging vocabulary, grammar and concepts in any field, often exploring their personal feelings and concerns. Original work by other students awakens admiration among classmates and sets the ground for good citizenship.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 100% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
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. 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: 51
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 74
  • Sustainability: 71
  • Growth: 40

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 47.9%; rating input score 48
  • Program expense ratio: 74.3%; rating input score 74
  • 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: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 35.5%; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.41; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 38%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 2.9% per year; rating input score 100; 41st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -11% per year; rating input score 0; 5th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -3.2% per year; rating input score 0; 13th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 47.9% of revenue deployed · 74.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 3 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $66K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $34K · 9 people listed
  • Consistency: 14 of 14 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 8 filing years from 2016 to 2025
  • 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.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 48/100.
  • Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 7/100.