Living Walls The City Speaks Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
454603128
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Atlanta, GA, USA
Phone
3212626888
Rating
60
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Arts, Cultural Organizations - Multipurpose

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$564,152
Expenses
$620,739
Assets
$58,439
Liabilities
$26

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

Leadership & pay

7 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • Monica Campana (Executive Dir.): $81,083 total reported compensation
  • Kristen Consuegra (Productions Director): $18,846 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Living Walls: The City Speaks, Inc. promotes public interest in and appreciation of public space through street art by working with local, national and international artists to create contemporary public art, murals and installations around the city of Atlanta. Through this artwork we bring awareness to public space that is often overlooked, neglected or taken for granted while also inspiring social change. We engage in dialogue with communities around this artwork and the locations they inhabit through mural making, workshops, lectures, conferences and gallery showings. We install artwork in a variety of locations around the City of Atlanta, and eventually the State of Georgia, in order to bring individuals into areas they may not normally travel, and therefore get to know their city, state and fellow Georgians in a new way.

What it reported doing in 2025

Public Art curation and Mural Production: Living Walls worked with community organizations and mission aligned partners to commission works of public art in various districts of the City of Atlanta and beyond. Our focus remains to provide the tools, resources, and training to equip a diverse pool of artists to thrive in their creative careers. In 2025, we created 9 murals, commissioned 5 mixed media installations. hired 40 artists and 8 media contractors.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 71% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
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. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 89
  • Transparency & Controls: 60
  • Accountability: 5
  • Sustainability: 19
  • Growth: 80

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 92.6%; rating input score 93
  • Program expense ratio: 84.2%; rating input score 84
  • Fundraising efficiency: $140.23 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 15th 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: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 0%; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 1 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 12
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • 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: Fail
    • Audit committee oversight: Fail
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -10%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.09; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 16.1%; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 14.6% per year; rating input score 100; 70th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 7.6% per year; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -15.5% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 92.6% of revenue deployed · 84.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 0 of 4 board members independent · 1 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $523K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $81K · 7 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 24 of 25 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2020 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
  • 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 — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 0/100.
  • High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 7 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 13/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 5/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 22/100.