Merce Cunningham Trust
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 016186903
- IRS 990-PF coverage
- 2014–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-PF 2025
- Location
- New York, NY, USA
- Phone
- 2122558240
- Rating
- 80
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Standard
- Sector
- Private Operating Foundations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $526,995
- Expenses
- $984,269
Source: IRS Form 990-PF. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Overview
Mission
Private Operating Foundations
What it reported funding in 2025
The foundation reported 3 grants totaling $35,000. The stated grant purposes included financial aid for dance students and to aid in the transition from student to professional.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. The foundation's positive operating resources came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The foundation carried out 95% of its reported charitable disbursements directly.
- Includes asset-sale income: Asset-sale income is shown separately from recurring resources when classifying the revenue model.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes to charitable grants and the filing identifies who received its grants. A relatively small share of spending goes to grants and the filing reports one or more activities that warrant closer review.
Rating breakdown
- Grant Deployment: 100
- Cost Efficiency: 4
- Transparency: 100
- Compliance: 94
- Endowment Health: 99
Detailed rating inputs
Grant Deployment
- Grant deployment ratio: 100%; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
Cost Efficiency
- Grant expense ratio: 3.6%; rating input score 4; 6th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency
- Grant recipient disclosure: Yes; rating input score 100
Compliance
- Part VII-B activity disclosures: 17 of 19 controls in place; rating input score 89
- Property sale or exchange with a disqualified person: Pass
- Borrowing from or lending to a disqualified person: Pass
- Goods, services, or facilities involving a disqualified person: Pass
- Compensation paid to a disqualified person: Fail
- Assets transferred to a disqualified person: Pass
- Payment to a government official: Pass
- Uncorrected prior self-dealing: Pass
- Prior-year undistributed income: Pass
- Excess business holdings: Pass
- Investments that may jeopardize charitable purposes: Pass
- Uncorrected prior-year jeopardizing investments: Pass
- Attempt to influence legislation: Pass
- Attempt to influence an election: Pass
- Grants to individuals: Fail
- Grants to organizations: Pass
- Spending for a noncharitable purpose: Pass
- Funds received for a personal-benefit contract: Pass
- Premiums paid on a personal-benefit contract: Pass
- Prohibited tax-shelter transaction: Pass
- Filing consistency checks: 10; rating input score 100
Endowment Health
- Endowment-health comparison: 258.13; rating input score 99; 99th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: Financial trends and filed revenue, expense, asset, and liability detail
- Grants: 100% of grant recipient detail disclosed
- Payout: At least 100% grant deployment rate
- Trustees: Filed trustees detail
- Self-dealing: 100% of reviewed questions answered “No”
- Investments: 99th percentile for endowment coverage
- Consistency: 10 of 10 current checks pass
- Schedules: 1 filed schedules
- Filing history: 12 filing years from 2014 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 8 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.
- 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 — Cost Efficiency: Grant expense ratio scored 4/100.
- Review — Compliance: Part VII-B activity disclosures: 2 of 19 not reported.