Mainframe Studios

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
461637111
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2013
Location
Des Moines, IA, USA
Phone
5152164253
Rating
82
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Arts, Culture, and Humanities N.E.C.

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,762,839
Expenses
$2,052,863
Assets
$9,422,363
Liabilities
$150,258

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

Leadership & pay

11 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • John McGowan (President)
  • Sarah Young (Vice President)
  • Julia Franklin-Jones (Executive Director)

Highest reported compensation

  • Julia Franklin-Jones (Executive Director): $114,854 total reported compensation
  • Jill Wells (Secretary): $3,200 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Mainframe Studios provides affordable arts workspace and fosters creative communities in central Iowa.

What it reported doing in 2025

Mainframe Studios spends a portion of of its budget on programming for monthly First Friday Open Studio events that attract thousands of visitors. We average 2,464 attendees each First Friday with over 14,250 people attending each month. That accounts for a sizable community impact and a total of 174,238 visitor experiences each year. The festive, free First Friday Studio events feature unique and creative experiences for audiences each month. These include exhibitions in 4 gallery spaces, arts activities, and live music entertainment relating to themed events and various art forms such as ceramics, fashion, printmaking and painting. First Fridays also feature local musicians and affordable dinner options by local food vendors and resident caterers, Tangerine Food Company. Tenant/Artists open their studios to connect with new customers and community members to help further their careers and artistic practices. Artists/tenants are paid to support First Friday events by documenting the events and designing all printed and social media. Tenants/Teaching artists support our K-12 art field experiences that saw 998 youth participate in 2025. In fall 2025, Mainframe launched Work of Art: Business Skills for Artists, a 12 week program for a 25-person cohort to help artists grow their skills and advance their careers. Mainframe also self publishes an annual gift guide that showcases creative works for sale and includes stories about our artists and partners.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 79% 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

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 expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 84
  • Transparency & Controls: 86
  • Accountability: 91
  • Sustainability: 41
  • Growth: 40

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 95.7%; rating input score 96
  • Program expense ratio: 82.2%; rating input score 82
  • Fundraising efficiency: $7.85 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 22nd 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • 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: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -16.5%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.59; rating input score 83; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 5.8%; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 5.3% per year; rating input score 100; 38th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -21.1% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -4.5% per year; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 95.7% of revenue deployed · 82.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $1.7M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $115K · 11 people listed
  • Consistency: 26 of 27 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 27/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 8/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 49/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 56/100.