Harrisonburg Children's Museum Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 161683676
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2012–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Harrisonburg, VA, USA
- Phone
- 5404428900
- Rating
- 82
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Historical Societies, Related Historical Activities
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $991,008
- Expenses
- $971,382
- Assets
- $4,685,096
- Liabilities
- $20,530
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
19 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- LISA SHULL (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
- KEVIN GIBSON (PRESIDENT, BOARD MBR)
- KATHLEEN STOEHR (V PRESIDENT, BOARD MBR)
Highest reported compensation
- LISA SHULL (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $104,065 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Explore more discovery museum engages young minds through interactive, multi-sensory learning experiences that promote greater understanding of themselves and their world.
What it reported doing in 2024
Educational programs and access explore more discovery museum provided enriching, hands-on learning experiences for children and families throughout the year. Program staff led field trips, summer camps, and youth makerspace activities that extended learning beyond the museums 18 exhibit spaces, engaging more than 8,000 students. Serving over 82,000 visitors annually, the museum remained committed to accessibility with approximately 15 of guests benefiting from sponsored admission programs such as first friday free and museums for all, ensuring access to play based learning. Partnerships deepened this impact, including a preschool event and family resource fair with united way and art outreach for all local boys and girls club locations. Additional collaborations with the shenandoah valley childrens choir, your economic sucess yes, and the jmu dietetics program enriched programming and supported inclusivity across the region. In total, these initiatives contributed services valued at more than 100k, supporting over 11,000 visitors and families.
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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 75
- Transparency & Controls: 86
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 57
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 81.9%; rating input score 82
- Program expense ratio: 82.5%; rating input score 83
- Fundraising efficiency: $3.78 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 12; 12th 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: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- 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: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 2%; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.82; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 10.7%; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 9.3% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 5.2% per year; rating input score 100; 45th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 8.4% per year; rating input score 100; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 81.9% of revenue deployed · 82.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 17 of 17 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $801K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $104K · 19 people listed
- Consistency: 28 of 29 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 12 filing years from 2012 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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 12/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 42/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 34/100.