Greater Charlotte Cultural Trust
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 820576292
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2019–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Location
- Charlotte, NC, USA
- Phone
- 7049734500
- Rating
- 71
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Fund Raising and/or Fund Distribution
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $4,272,816
- Expenses
- $10,287,810
- Assets
- $0
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- DOUG BENSON (SECRETARY): $305,316 total reported compensation
- ADAM SANTALLA (DIRECTOR): $90,134 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Growing and sustaining a vibrant cultural community in charlotte-mecklenburg by providing endowment management and oversight and investment expertise to build and grow permanent funds for the area's arts, science, and history organizations.
What it reported doing in 2024
Historic, arts & sciences: the trust oversees the cultural endowment to help sustain and grow the permanent funds of the arts & science council of charlotte/mecklenburg and its cultural partners through investment management. By aggregating the endowments of all cultural organizations with the assets of foundation for the carolinas, the trust provides competitive fees and access to investment managers and expertise.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Grant intermediary. The nonprofit sent 95% of its reported program spending out as grants.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and most voting board members are independent. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and the filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 96
- Transparency & Controls: 57
- Accountability: 64
- Sustainability: 10
- Growth: 40
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 94.1%; rating input score 94
- Fundraising efficiency: $55.05 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 7th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Missing
- Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
- Grant itemization coverage: 98.8%; rating input score 99; 36th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 81.8%; rating input score 82; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 3 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 38
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Limited
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -140.8%; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 0.6%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -1.6% per year; rating input score 0; 10th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 4.9% per year; rating input score 100; 41st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -13.5% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 94.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 9 of 11 board members independent · 3 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $9.7M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $305K · 11 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $991K reported
- Consistency: 17 of 18 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 9 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 6 filing years from 2019 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 16 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 18 filed related-organization links
- 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: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 7 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.