Louis Armstrong House Museum

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
264178283
IRS 990 coverage
2014–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Corona, NY, USA
Phone
7184788274
Rating
70
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Museum, Museum Activities

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$4,366,047
Expenses
$2,073,861
Assets
$7,954,101
Liabilities
$424,248

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

14 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • REGINA BAIN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • REGINA BAIN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $191,362 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The louis armstrong house museum sustains and promotes the cultural, historical, and humanitarian legacy of louis armstrong by preserving and interpreting armstrong's house and grounds, collecting and sharing archival materials that document armstrong's life and legacy, and presenting public programs such as exhibits, concerts, lectures, and film screenings. The museum seeks to educate and inspire people of all ages, origins, and locations.

What it reported doing in 2024

In 2025, louis armstrong house museum (lahm) was designated as a new member of New York city's cultural institutions group (cig). This designation will provide further fiscal stability to the organization and recognizes lahm's decades-long commitment to art and education in the community.in 2025 our programs were inspired by the armstrong values of: preserving and sharing the legacy, artistic excellence, education, and community. These programs served over 20,000 constituents consisting of students, adults, and seniors from all over the world and diverse ethnic backgrounds.preserving and sharing the legacytours of the expanded campus: in addition to the armstrong home guided tour, we also welcomed thousands of visitors to the new armstrong center. The center features a state of the art exhibition space showcasing hundreds of items from our archival collections.the corona collection exhibition: this project documented the oral histories of 15 corona, ny residents who personally knew louis and lucille armstrong. The exhibition included an exhibition video, exhibit cases showcasing 36 assets, and a mural. The exhibit opened to the public in october 2025 and is currently open to the publicartistic excellencearmstrong now!: now in its fifth year, our artist in residence program featured trinidadian trumpeter, percussionist, composer, and storyteller etienne charles and distinguished choreographer, filmmaker, and educator irishia hubbard romaine. Each artist explored the armstrong archival collection for inspiration to furnish new projects spanning music, dance, spoken word, and visual and performing arts. The commissioned performances for these artists were showcased in fall 2025 in the armstrong center jazz room.year round concerts: in addition to our armstrong now! Performances, we hosted year round performances featuring a wide range of jazz artists.education & communitypops is tops, our longest standing program now in its 39th year, featured grammy-nominated trumpeter alphonso horne. This 4 day festival served over 2,000 students from corona, queens and surrounding neighborhoods. During this free event every student also received a complimentary tour of the armstrong home.trumpet lessons: our instrument instruction program provided weekly trumpet instruction at the armstrong center to students ages 8 - 14. More than 30 students were taught by world class artists for low or no-cost and received a trumpet on loan for the duration of their classes.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 76% 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 - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 58
  • Transparency & Controls: 67
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 84
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 39.9%; rating input score 40
  • Program expense ratio: 79.8%; rating input score 80
  • Fundraising efficiency: $59.01 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 94.1%; rating input score 94; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
    • 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: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 52.5%; rating input score 93; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.84; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 1.2%; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 5.7% per year; rating input score 100; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 12.7% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 16% per year; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 39.9% of revenue deployed · 79.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 12 of 13 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.7M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $191K · 14 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 33 of 34 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 11 filing years from 2014 to 2024
  • 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.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 40/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Document-retention policy not reported.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.