Myriad Gardens Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
731293008
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2020
Location
Oklahoma City, OK, USA
Phone
4054457080
Rating
77
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Botanical Gardens, Arboreta and Botanical Organizations

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$6,099,706
Expenses
$5,499,078
Assets
$12,218,024
Liabilities
$517,326

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

Leadership & pay

15 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • MAUREEN HEFFERNAN (PRESIDENT AN)
  • MICHELLE FURRER (PRESIDENT /)

Highest reported compensation

  • MAUREEN HEFFERNAN (PRESIDENT AN): $217,229 total reported compensation
  • CINDY ROGERS (CFO): $123,795 total reported compensation
  • DEBORA MOREY (SECRETARY): $25,837 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 myriad botanical gardens' mission is to create a beautiful botanical garden and urban park with a diversity of year-round horticultural, cultural and recreational programs and events to improve the quality of life in Oklahoma city. Our primary programs offer educational programs that teach all ages about plants, gardening and conservation. These programs include hands-on educational classes for schools that focus on our outdoor gardens as well as tropical plants in our crystal bridge conservatory. We offer dozens of gardening programs, from composting and seed starting to pruning, garden design and plants for pollinators and much more. We offer an annual gardening school attended by hundreds that focus on sustainable gardening for Oklahoma. In addition to horticultural education programs, we offer seasonal botanical festivals including orchid shows, fall harvest and holiday festivals. We also offer a diversity of cultural events that include concerts, plays, dance, book festivals,

What it reported doing in 2024

Our top three programs consist of our grounds, horticultural educational programs and recreational and cultural events. Our 15-acres of outdoor gardens, lawns, water features, children's playground and visitor lobby are free and open to the public. The site contains extensive plant collections and green spaces for education, play, relaxation and inspiration for all ages to appreciate and learn about plants and gardening. Our year-round horticultural education programs for all ages include lectures, hands-on workshops, outdoor plant walks, and an annual all day garden education symposium. We offer a spring native plant sale, a spring garden festival and a fall tree sale. Our recreational and cultural events include: concerts, movies, art exhibits, seasonal family festivals (bringing books to life and pumpkinville), ice skating, yoga, bike programs, basketball and futsol courts, holiday events and ethnic festivals. We estimate over 300,000 participate in our programs, special events and visits to the conservatory. We estimate over 500,000 people a year visit the gardens. Our tropical plant conservatory undertook a major renovation and reopened to the public in november 2022. The renovations resulted in improved displays, interpretation, accessibility, new water features and sculpture. A new gift shop opened at the same time featuring a wide range of inventory that is botanically themed or useful for gardening.

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

SUPPORTED - 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.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 73
  • Transparency & Controls: 70
  • Accountability: 91
  • Sustainability: 66
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 70.1%; rating input score 70
  • Program expense ratio: 73.5%; rating input score 74
  • Fundraising efficiency: $64.85 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • 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: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 9.8%; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.22; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0.3%; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 4.3% per year; rating input score 100; 35th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 7.8% per year; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 11.4% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 70.1% of revenue deployed · 73.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $4M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $217K · 15 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 31 of 31 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 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: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • 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.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.