Hands on Childrens Museum Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
593450375
IRS 990 coverage
2021–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2020
Location
Jacksonville, FL, USA
Phone
9046422688
Rating
70
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Children's Museums

Reported finances

Revenue
$313,284
Expenses
$261,936
Assets
$382,634
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • Pamela Locke (Director): $30,000 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

The Hands On Children's Museum promotes hands-on participatory learning for children of all ages. Encouraging discovery through observation, inquiry, creative construction, role playing, problem solving and free play. The museum motivates children to develop their cognitive, physical and social skills.

What it reported doing in 2025

The Hands On Children's Museum serves close to 50,000 children and adults yearly through individual entrances and schools and group visits. The museum is a community resource that reinforces school based learning and understanding through experience. The museum also enables parents, teachers, grandparents and all other adults to interact in a fun and educational environment where learning is achieved through interaction.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 100% 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 - 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 total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 80
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 16
  • Sustainability: 58
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 83.6%; rating input score 84
  • Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100
  • 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: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: Limited
  • Governance controls: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • 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: 16.4%; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.46; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 11.5%; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 7.4% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 15.1% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 38.2% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 83.6% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 3 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $262K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $30K · 5 people listed
  • Consistency: 39 of 39 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 2 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2021 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.

  • Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 7 not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 51/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 26/100.