Equity Arts

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
852271772
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2025–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2025
Location
Chicago, IL, USA
Phone
3125022230
Rating
36
Verdict
REVIEW
Rating confidence
Moderate

Reported finances

Revenue
$28,837
Expenses
$23,506
Assets
$6,525
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

10 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Alma Wieser (President)

People named in this filing

  • Alma Wieser (President)
  • Eric Williams (Board Member)
  • David Chavez (Board Member)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

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

Overview

Mission

EQUITY ARTS is a center for the creative economy that advances racial equity and wealth-building for artists and entrepreneurs. This reparative ownership model preserves space for synergistic exchanges between value-aligned partners. The center fuels commercial abundance and enriches authentic cultural experiences that serves as a vehicle for transformative healing.

What it reported doing in 2025

Derived from the need for self-determination, Equity Arts is establishing a replicable economic model for sustainable arts & culture through community-owned real estate. This strategic investment redirects the power of the market towards social impact, restoring neighborhood authenticity and developing a local resilient arts ecosystem for the next generation of Chicago arts leaders and entrepreneurs.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 91% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.

The verdict

REVIEW - The filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 0
  • Transparency & Controls: 82
  • Sustainability: 54
  • Growth: 20

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 0%; rating input score 0
  • Program expense ratio: 0%; rating input score 0

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Limited

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 18.5%; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.28; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: -118.1% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 138.1% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 0% of revenue deployed · 0% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 10 people listed
  • Consistency: 8 of 9 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 2 filed schedules
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • 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.

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 0/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part III transfer expenses within program total did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 22/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.