Friends of the Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 770296155
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Palo Alto, CA, USA
- Phone
- 6503266338
- Rating
- 73
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Single Organization Support
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $722,541
- Expenses
- $556,422
- Assets
- $4,451,247
- Liabilities
- $11,373
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
22 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- LAUREN ANGELO (President)
- GABRIELA HEBERT (Vice President)
People named in this filing
- LAUREN ANGELO (President)
- GABRIELA HEBERT (Vice President)
- STEVE EMSLIE (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 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The friends of palo alto junior museum & zoo works to support and enhance the palo alto junior museum & zoo. Whose mission is to engage a child's curiosity in science and nature.
What it reported doing in 2024
The mission of the friends of the palo alto junior museum & zoo (friends) is to support and enhance the palo alto junior museum & zoo (jmz), an early years science education facility. Nearly 200,000 people visit the jmz annually, and jmz educators serve more than 20,000 students each year through hands-on learning and child-centric exploration techniques often lacking in traditional science classes. The friends works closely with the city of palo alto to provide free science education classes to elementary students in east palo alto, menlo park, and redwood city, where budget cuts have eliminated many school-based science programs. More than 3,000 elementary students participate in this program each year. In fiscal year 2018, the friends entered into an agreement with the city of palo alto to rebuild the jmz through a $25 million capital project. The new facilities opened in november 2021 with interactive science exhibits and expanded zoo spaces. Today, the friends continues to raise funds to support science education, animal care, and new exhibits, ensuring the jmz remains an engaging, welcoming, and accessible community resource for all learners.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 84% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 57
- Transparency & Controls: 86
- Accountability: 88
- Sustainability: 82
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 61.7%; rating input score 62
- Program expense ratio: 62.3%; rating input score 62
- Fundraising efficiency: $4.79 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 16th 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; 63rd 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: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 23%; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 8; rating input score 90; 90th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 0.1% per year; rating input score 100; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -4.7% per year; rating input score 0; 5th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 1% per year; rating input score 100; 21st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 61.7% of revenue deployed · 62.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 22 of 22 board members independent · 5 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $347K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 22 people listed
- Consistency: 23 of 24 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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 16/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.