Meetinghouse Arts
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 475194581
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2018
- Location
- Freeport, ME, USA
- Phone
- 2078650044
- Rating
- 82
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Arts, Cultural Organizations - Multipurpose
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $277,723
- Expenses
- $331,125
- Assets
- $723,711
- Liabilities
- $115,432
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Suzanne Watson (Executive Director)
- Kate Werner (Vice President)
- Lynn Shaffer (President)
Highest reported compensation
- Suzanne Watson (Executive Director): $50,000 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 mission of Meetinghouse Arts is to cultivate Greater Freeport as a vibrant center for arts and culture by fostering creative collaboration, expanding access to arts and cultural assets, and amplifying the arts and culture as powerful tools to create, strengthen, and connect community.
What it reported doing in 2024
In 2024 we increased our community involvement. In 2023 the National Endowment for the Arts awarded us an "Our Town" grant to help finance a project to capture a moment in time in Freeport, ME and in 2024 we accomplished the program. Our Town: A Community Self Portrait brought our community together to create a documentary snapshot of a moment in time in Freeport, photographing and writing about the people, places and activities that make our home town special. These visual and written stories were exhibited primarily at Meetinghouse Arts Gallery and Freeport Historical Society, where local citizens excitedly identified friends, neighbors, and places that have helped define their lives. The images, poems, essays, and musings have since graced the walls at Freeport Town Hall and are now hung in the Augusta State Capitol by the Maine Arts Commission. They'll move to other locations throughout town in the Fall and eventually be archived by the Freeport Historical Society. Community discussions of the project were convened at Meetinghouse Arts.
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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 91
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 69
- Sustainability: 30
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 90.1%; rating input score 90
- Fundraising efficiency: $14.59 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th 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: 2 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 25
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -19.2%; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.19; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.16; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 15.1%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 25.1% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -15.1% per year; rating input score 0; 4th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 7.5% per year; rating input score 100; 57th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 90.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 13 of 13 board members independent · 2 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $298K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $50K · 11 people listed
- Consistency: 38 of 38 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 7 not reported.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 49/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 15/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 22/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 24/100.