Denton Day of the Dead Festival

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
474453381
IRS 990 coverage
2024–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2023, Form 990-N 2022
Location
Denton, TX, USA
Phone
9403685305
Rating
71
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Arts, Cultural Organizations - Multipurpose

Reported finances

Revenue
$353,432
Expenses
$308,010
Assets
$130,869
Liabilities
$85,140

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

Leadership & pay

4 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • DAVID PIERCE (President)
  • AMY MOORE (Vice President)

Highest reported compensation

  • DAVID PIERCE (President): $48,061 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Denton Day of the Dead Festival annually provides an inclusive and family focused festival in Denton, Texas, to celebrate Da de los Muertos. Festival goers can enjoy great food & drink, arts & crafts, and live music and dance, along with unique events like the Pine Box Races, Coffin Races, a Twilight Lantern Parade, a community altar and a Flight of Souls, the Cirque du Horror Musical, a Pumpkin Patch and Costume Contest, story telling and performances from Denton ISD schools.

What it reported doing in 2025

Organized an annual festival in Denton, TX to celebrate Da de los Muertos.

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 91% 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 - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 64
  • Transparency & Controls: 76
  • Accountability: 79
  • Sustainability: 39
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 63.5%; rating input score 64
  • Program expense ratio: 72.9%; rating input score 73
  • Fundraising efficiency: $11.36 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 24th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 48.8%; rating input score 49; 44th percentile among comparable filings
  • 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: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • 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: 12.9%; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.42; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.65; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 15.6%; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 16% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 32.8% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 45.3% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 63.5% of revenue deployed · 72.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $225K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $48K · 4 people listed
  • Consistency: 25 of 26 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 2 filing years from 2024 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 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 — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 49/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 41/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 22/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 7/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 22/100.