Menil Foundation Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
746045327
IRS 990 coverage
2011–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
Location
Houston, TX, USA
Phone
7135259400
Rating
80
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Art Museums

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$37,261,644
Expenses
$31,282,405
Assets
$527,697,861
Liabilities
$2,229,947

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

Leadership & pay

31 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Doug L Lawing (President)
  • Leslie Elkins Sasser (Vice President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Rebecca Rabinow (Director): $625,256 total reported compensation
  • Matthew Assiff (CFO): $263,000 total reported compensation
  • Edouard Kopp (Chief Curator, MDI): $223,313 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 Menil Collection ("The Menil") is committed to its founders' belief that art is essential to human experience. The Menil fosters direct personal encounters with art, and welcomes all visitors free of charge to its museum buildings and surrounding green spaces.

What it reported doing in 2024

Exhibitions, art displays, and neighborhood enhancement: The Menil Collection regularly rotates displays of its permanent collection and organizes loan exhibitions, primarily in the main museum building and in the Menil Drawing Institute. The Menil's thirty-acre campus includes three other art buildings - Cy Twombly Gallery, the Dan Flavin Installation at Richmond Hall, and the Fresco Building along with bungalows serving as staff offices, and a bookstore. The Menil Foundation rents out a number of properties in the neighborhood, including some to other non-profits at discounted rates, and maintains a significant amount of green space, which contributes to the unique vitality of the Menil neighborhood. (Continued on Schedule O)Additionally the Foundation maintains the historic Menil House, the former residence of the museum's founders, which is located in a nearby neighborhood, and serves as the site for museum functions.

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.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 77
  • Transparency & Controls: 78
  • Accountability: 98
  • Sustainability: 81
  • Growth: 40

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 90.7%; rating input score 91
  • Program expense ratio: 68%; rating input score 68
  • Fundraising efficiency: $9.08 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 94.1%; rating input score 94; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 5 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 83
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Pass
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 95.8%; rating input score 96; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 16%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 16.87; rating input score 95; 95th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 94; 94th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 6.2%; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 5.8% per year; rating input score 100; 48th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -2.4% per year; rating input score 0; 4th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -1% per year; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 90.7% of revenue deployed · 68% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 23 of 24 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $21.3M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $625K · 31 people listed · 5 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $2.3M reported
  • Consistency: 38 of 39 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 11 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 14 filing years from 2011 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 8 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 3 filed related-organization links
  • 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.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 35/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 41/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Schedule R controlled transactions itemized did not reconcile in the filed values.