French-american Cultural Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
522109476
IRS 990 coverage
2017–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
Location
Washington, DC, USA
Phone
2025458781
Rating
70
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Performing Arts Organizations

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$655,993
Expenses
$484,418
Assets
$192,726
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • DEBRA DUNN (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • DEBRA DUNN (PRESIDENT): $108,333 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

To identify, promote and expand academic, cultural and scientific relationships linking france and the united states. We do this through artistic, educational and other cultural presentations, events, trips and perhaps most importantly by enabling introductions pertinent to the french-american relationship.

What it reported doing in 2024

The french-american cultural foundation extended, expanded our mission of promoting the french-american relationship through various cultural programming with prominent institutions such as chateau de versailles, versailles spectacles, institut marie curie, lyfe institut, the houston ballet, meridian international center, the national museum of women in the arts, the embassy of france, the us embassy in paris, the us department of state, american library in paris, and mount vernon among others. The year's work and programs entailed working with existing partnerships, identifying new partners and elevating the foundation's work with the embassy of france to allow for broadening of our audiences on both sides of the atlantic. We worked with the american friends of lafayette and the consul general of france in Texas to support the 200th anniversary celebration of gen. Lafayette's final tour of the us, culminating in planning the presentation of the lafayette-Washington award for cultural diplomacy to be given in 2025. The award will be given to both a frenchman and an american instrumental in preserving the franco-american legacy. For the 4th year, f-acf brought a group of 35+ americans to paris and versailles, culminating in the royal opera of versailles annual gala. In recognition, we were given a place on their honorary host committee and a speaking role. We are partnering with the institut curie in their ground-breaking cancer reseach, and support their fundraisers in both Washington, dc and nyc by our established network. Together with our 20 france based partners and 20 us partners, we identify ad then develop program content. Our ongoing projects include the following programs: planning the second in the savoir faire & innovation series, to be presented in houston, work with our partners, and in particular, the french embassy to plan programming to celebrate the 250th anniversay of the american revolution, and plan the first lafayette-Washington award for cultural diplomacy dinner.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 89% 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 - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 69
  • Transparency & Controls: 67
  • Accountability: 79
  • Sustainability: 56
  • Growth: 80

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 61.6%; rating input score 62
  • Program expense ratio: 83.3%; rating input score 83
  • Fundraising efficiency: $22.35 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 61; 61st 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: 1 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 12
    • Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
    • Requires narrative reports: Fail
    • Conducts field audits: Fail
    • May suspend future funding: Fail
    • Requires financial reports: Fail
    • Conducts site visits: Fail
    • Requires grant agreements: Fail
    • May require repayment: Fail
  • Grant itemization coverage: 50%; rating input score 50; 29th 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: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • 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: 26.2%; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.4; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 22.4%; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 1.4% per year; rating input score 100; 24th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 11.3% per year; rating input score 100; 70th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -6.5% per year; rating input score 0; 5th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 61.6% of revenue deployed · 83.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $404K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $108K · 9 people listed
  • Consistency: 27 of 27 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and foreign activity
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2017 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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 — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight: 7 of 8 not reported.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 50/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 19/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 12/100.