Festival Center
Legal name: Festival Center Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 521499111
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Washington D.C., District of Columbia, United States
- Phone
- 202-328-0072
- Rating
- 83
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Neighborhood Centers
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $2,093,603
- Expenses
- $2,063,252
- Assets
- $8,355,744
- Liabilities
- $4,757,127
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
7 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- William R Mefford Jr (Executive Dir.): $103,536 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Through hospitality, education, spiritual development, and practice, the Festival Center serves as a generative source for all people to work against all forms of oppression and to strive for a just city, nation, and world. The Festival Center first opened our doors in 1989 as a ministry from the Church of the Saviour, an ecumenical church in Washington, DC, founded in 1947 by Gordon and Mary Cosby. Gordon and a small group of others started the Festival Center to support community-centered ministries and non-profits and to train faith leaders in DC and all across the country for mission and justice. Their call remains ours today. For over 30 years the Festival Center has served as a hub for activists, artists, people of faith and no faith, seekers, and mission-driven groups. A landmark in the Adams Morgan neighborhood in Washington DC, the Center is a home to numerous organizations...
What it reported doing in 2024
The Festival Center provides programs and facilities for activists, artists, people of faith and no faith, seekers, and mission-driven groups standing against oppression and striving for a just world.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 65% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 99% 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
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 some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 73
- Transparency & Controls: 94
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 50
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 78.3%; rating input score 78
- Program expense ratio: 79.4%; rating input score 79
- Fundraising efficiency: $7.71 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 1.4%; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.05; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.57; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 5%; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 8.6% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 4.4% per year; rating input score 100; 37th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 8.3% per year; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 78.3% of revenue deployed · 79.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.6M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $104K · 7 people listed
- Consistency: 40 of 40 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
- 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: Fundraising efficiency scored 29/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 39/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 18/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 53/100.