Gainesville Fine Arts Association

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
591595970
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2021
Location
Gainesville, FL, USA
Phone
3523285027
Rating
82
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$219,991
Expenses
$197,095
Assets
$171,418
Liabilities
$2,311

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

11 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Kathryn Lemle (Executive Director)
  • Susan Fulford (President)
  • Wes Lindberg (Vice President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Kathryn Lemle (Executive Director): $66,957 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Gainesville Fine Arts Association (GFAA) is dedicated to supporting visual arts through exhibitions, workshops and programming.

What it reported doing in 2025

Community Outreach: In 2025, GFAA added a community program called Mindful Messages. Each year, a mural is created at a local school to empower and inspire middle & high school students through art. This year the mural was completed at Gainesville High School, with the help of students from Santa Fe College. Additionally, GFAA continued to offer ongoing exhibits in community public venues, including Oak Hammock at UF, restaurants, a church, and two locations of UF Innovate. We held our annual Studio Tour where visitors can tour various artists studios; continued the collaboration with the Friends of Elementary Arts Exhibition, offered one month of in-kind week-long exhibition space to artists for solo or curated show opportunities, hosted an Afro-futurism exhibition with the University of Florida, community collaboration exhibitions with the Greater Gainesville International Center, UF Center for Arts in Medicine and the Writers Alliance of Gainesville

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.
  • 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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 78
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 79
  • Sustainability: 43
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 80.2%; rating input score 80
  • Program expense ratio: 87.2%; rating input score 87
  • Fundraising efficiency: $10.72 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings

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: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • 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: 10.4%; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.87; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 34%; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 1.8% per year; rating input score 100; 36th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 14.5% per year; rating input score 100; 79th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 5.8% per year; rating input score 100; 48th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 80.2% of revenue deployed · 87.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $172K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $67K · 11 people listed
  • Consistency: 23 of 23 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 to 2025
  • 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.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 39/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 57/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 37/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 9/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 37/100.