Lexington Writers Room

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
844707656
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2021–2025
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2020
Location
Lexington, KY, USA
Phone
8592272422
Rating
46
Verdict
MIXED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Arts Service Organizations and Activities

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$73,674
Expenses
$61,599
Assets
$23,852
Liabilities
$1,622

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

Leadership & pay

12 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Gwenda Bond (Board Chair, President)

People named in this filing

  • Gwenda Bond (Board Chair, President)
  • Josh Boldt (Vice Chair)
  • Fiona Young-Brown (Treasurer)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

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

Overview

Mission

To provide support for aspiring and professional writers.

What it reported doing in 2025

The Lexington Writer's Room exists to create an inclusive, collaborative, and supportive environment where local writers produce more work and expand their readership. The LWR supports writers as they seek to build sustainable careers and do vital creative work. The LWR continued to subsidize memberships and provide a productive workspace, accountability partners, collaborators, professional connections, supplies, and support in 2025. A grant from LexArts allowed us to fund scholarships for needy writers. Monthly write-ins served as mini-retreats to provide community-building and focused work opportunities, attended by dozens of writers, and also featured readings of works-in-progress. In addition, community book groups, critique groups, receptions, and reading events were held on a regular basis in the space, offering further opportunities to both members and the broader community.

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

MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 8
  • Transparency & Controls: 100
  • Sustainability: 49
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 7.3%; rating input score 7
  • Program expense ratio: 8.7%; rating input score 9

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 16.4%; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.39; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.07; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -44.3% per year; rating input score 0; 10th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -18.6% per year; rating input score 0; 16th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -28% per year; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 7.3% of revenue deployed · 8.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $5K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 12 people listed
  • Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2021 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • 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: Mission deployment rate scored 7/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 9/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 27/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 17/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.