Arthouse Houston
Legal name: Friends of River Oaks Theatre Inc Dba Arthouse Houston
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 882921447
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2024–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2023, Form 990-N 2022
- Location
- Houston, TX, USA
- Phone
- 7138260227
- Rating
- 71
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Arts, Cultural Organizations - Multipurpose
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $124,981
- Expenses
- $115,821
- Assets
- $92,502
- Liabilities
- $6,024
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Maureen McNamara (President & CEO)
People named in this filing
- Maureen McNamara (President & CEO)
- Johnny So (Treasurer)
- Ian Druke (Secretary)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Arthouse Houston is a community-based nonprofit dedicated to joyously enriching and preserving Houston’s artistic film community and arthouse spaces. This mission is furthered by improving accessibility to arts and cinema through programming, public outreach, partnerships, and education to benefit our vibrant, diverse community.
What it reported doing in 2025
Outreach & Education: Friends of River Oaks Theatre, dba Arthouse Houston, is dedicated to joyously enriching the hearts and minds of a diverse community through the facilitation of art, the moving image, and support of historic cinemas including the River Oaks Theatre through Outreach and Educational programming. This programming includes monthly Mobile Movie Palace screening events and our Big Picture Series, with interdisciplinary artistic performances and educational opportunities, and our Friends on Film podcast, featuring lively discussions spanning the many areas of art and film, rooted in its history, present state, and future, highlighting local programming and festivals within Houston and the greater state of Texas.
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.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. 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: 92
- Accountability: 88
- Sustainability: 46
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 56.8%; rating input score 57
- Program expense ratio: 61.1%; rating input score 61
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 5 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 71
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 7.3%; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.8; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.07; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -88.1% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 36.4% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 24.6% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 2 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 56.8% of revenue deployed · 61.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 5 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $71K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 10 people listed
- Consistency: 24 of 24 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 2 filing years from 2024 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 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 57/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 52/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 35/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 25/100.