Friends of Arlington's David M Brown Planetarium
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 272760025
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2014–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2013, Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2012
- Location
- Arlington, VA, USA
- Phone
- 7038071188
- Rating
- 64
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Single Organization Support
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $48,626
- Expenses
- $33,620
- Assets
- $154,693
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
12 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- THERESA SCHWESER (PRESIDENT)
People named in this filing
- JIM THORNE (BOARD MEMBER)
- AMAN UDANI (BOARD MEMBER)
- DAWN DARLING (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
The purpose for which the organization is organized is to support the renovation and continued use of arlington's david m brown planetarium, to promote awareness and community use of the facility, and provide grants and scholarships to fund stem education.
What it reported doing in 2025
Funding the david m. Brown scholarship. This program wasestablished in 2012 and is administered by the arlingtoncommunity foundation. The first scholarship was awarded in 2013. The board of directors approved increasing the scholarship amount funded to $9,000 beginning with scholarships awarded in 2025. New scholarships are for $2,250 to be awarded annually for up to four years. Existing scholarships remained at $2,000 to be awarded for up to four years. In scholarship funding to the arlington community foundation with which the friends has an agreement to administer the scholarship.funding teacher grants. The friends established a grants for teachersprogram in 2015, which provides small grants (up to $500 each) to arlington public schools (aps) teachers to assist them in obtaining training in stem teaching. The program is jointly administered by aps and the friends. During 2025, the friends provided $6,454 in teacher grants.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 58% for direct work, and 42% for grants.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and revenue comfortably covers expenses. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and program spending has declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 52
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 77
- Growth: 20
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 44.2%; rating input score 44
- Program expense ratio: 64%; rating input score 64
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 30.9%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.6; rating input score 82; 82nd 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: -5.5% per year; rating input score 0; 35th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -0.2% per year; rating input score 0; 49th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 7.7% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 44.2% of revenue deployed · 64% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $22K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 12 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 12 filing years from 2014 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 44/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.