Monterey County Symphony Assoc Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 941584123
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Carmelbythesea, CA, USA
- Phone
- 8316468511
- Rating
- 83
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Symphony Orchestras
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $3,312,628
- Expenses
- $2,704,239
- Assets
- $21,166,738
- Liabilities
- $290,606
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
23 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- CHARLES SCHIMMEL (President)
Highest reported compensation
- NICOLA REILLY (Executive Dir.): $247,703 total reported compensation
- Noemi Vera (Operations Dir.): $90,000 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Entertain and engage our community through musical performance and education.
What it reported doing in 2024
The symphony performs major works by great composers, lesser-known works by them and their contemporaries, works by living composers and popular music that uses symphonic instrumentation. During the 2024-2025 season 6 concert sets, with a total of 12 performances, at the sunset center in carmel. Each concert set includes 2 performances. The outdoor pops concert series features family friendly compositions from films, musicals, tv shows and various other types of media. The pops concert series was presented twice at the forest theatre in carmel with an additional performance at sherwood hall in salinas. Two youth concerts were presented at sherwood hall in salinas and two more were performed at the forest theater in carmel. Children from all over the county were invited to watch the monterey symphony perform compositions from popular films, musicals and tv shows free of charge.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 68% 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
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 reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 72
- Transparency & Controls: 84
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 74
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 86.2%; rating input score 86
- Program expense ratio: 66%; rating input score 66
- Fundraising efficiency: $6.47 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Pass
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 18.4%; rating input score 75; 75th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 7.83; rating input score 89; 89th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 83; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 12.5%; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 2.6% per year; rating input score 100; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 4.6% per year; rating input score 100; 38th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 6.7% per year; rating input score 100; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 86.2% of revenue deployed · 66% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 21 of 21 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.8M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $248K · 23 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 2 contractors listed · $238K reported
- Consistency: 32 of 32 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- 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.
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 24/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 23/100.