Music and Culture Coalition of New Orleans Nonprofit Corporation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
462889310
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2015
Location
New Orleans, LA, USA
Phone
5043277713
Rating
64
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Professional Societies, Associations

Reported finances

Revenue
$366,517
Expenses
$375,465
Assets
$123,062
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

10 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Ethan Ellestad (Executive Director)
  • Nate Cameron Jr (Board President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Ethan Ellestad (Executive Director): $72,618 total reported compensation
  • Danovan Calhoun Bettis (Director of Engagement and Partnerships): $29,902 total reported compensation
  • Kendra Thompson (Director of Operations and Development): $26,959 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

We collaborate with organize and build the civic capacity of the New Orleans music and cultural community to preserve and nurture the citys culture to translate community vision into policy change and to create a more just and equitable city and region.

What it reported doing in 2025

Research and Direct Assistance: Our ongoing work on the Frenchmen Notes website continued this year and we continued our direct work with street performers hosting several meetings that attracted over 100 performers and artists. We also worked directly with cultural community members to connect them with other support systems assistance and funding mechanisims. Notably we also launced our Makin Gardens program which works with neighborhood elders and young people to establish backyard edible gardens using culturaly appropriate methods and produce. Towards the end of the year we began development of our Mobile University which uses small group settings to develop skills related to grant writing financial mangement leadership and civic engagement.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 61% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 85% 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

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and most voting board members are independent. The filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 63
  • Transparency & Controls: 59
  • Accountability: 72
  • Sustainability: 29
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 65.4%; rating input score 65
  • Program expense ratio: 63.8%; rating input score 64
  • Fundraising efficiency: $17.05 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 81.8%; rating input score 82; 1st percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 0%; rating input score 0; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • 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: 3 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • 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: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -2.4%; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.33; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 40.1%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 57.3% per year; rating input score 100; 96th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 8.4% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 14.5% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 65.4% of revenue deployed · 63.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 3 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $240K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $73K · 10 people listed
  • Consistency: 40 of 42 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2020 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 4 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 — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 8 not reported.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 51/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 30/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 18/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 6/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.