Design Sacramento

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
833173941
IRS 990 coverage
2024–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2023, Form 990-N 2022
Location
Sacramento, CA, USA
Phone
9167470998
Rating
70
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Arts, Cultural Organizations - Multipurpose

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$140,644
Expenses
$119,349
Assets
$52,157
Liabilities
$0

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

11 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Amanda Sanchez (Executive Director)
  • Phil Tretheway (President)
  • Will Rodriguez (Vice-President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Rochelle Reynosa (Operations Director): $29,033 total reported compensation
  • Amanda Sanchez (Executive Director): $24,900 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

We connect and empower the creative community in the Sacramento region. We bring creative professionals together for education, inspiration and connections. We provide workforce development, professional development, and networking opportunities for our community.

What it reported doing in 2024

Creativity Speaks is a program designed to celebrate local creatives, offer attendees a source of inspiration from creatives outside their industry, and strengthen Sacramento's creative community. The program manifests as live salon-style events and features traditional and non-traditional creatives to help draw a mixed audience and encourage intermingling between creative industries. Creativity Speaks is dedicated to equitable representation and a celebration of the diversity of creative thought. We host six Creativity Speaks events throughout the year and serve an average of 50 people per event.

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.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of total spending goes to programs. 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: 62
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 72
  • Sustainability: 48
  • Growth: 20

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 54%; rating input score 54
  • Program expense ratio: 63.6%; rating input score 64
  • Fundraising efficiency: $364.95 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 94; 94th 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: 3 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 15.1%; rating input score 68; 68th 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: 45.2%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: -19.3% per year; rating input score 0; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 131% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 54% of revenue deployed · 63.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 3 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $76K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $29K · 11 people listed
  • Consistency: 41 of 41 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 4 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.

  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 54/100.
  • Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 22/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 5/100.