Narrative Arts

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
811408770
IRS 990 coverage
2016–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Wilmington, NC, USA
Phone
6064548864
Rating
86
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Ethnic, Immigrant Centers

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$682,066
Expenses
$573,108
Assets
$448,568
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

6 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • NICK SZUBERLA (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • NICK SZUBERLA (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $65,000 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Narrative Arts builds community power through storytelling, journalism, dialogue, and cultural organizing. Through multimedia reporting, public engagement projects, artist collaborations, youth media initiatives, and fiscal sponsorship services, the organization helps communities document their experiences, strengthen civic participation, preserve cultural memory, and advance social change.

What it reported doing in 2025

Narrative Arts partnered with nonprofit organizations, artists, educators, journalists, and community leaders to strengthen storytelling, communications, and public engagement capacity. Through workshops, trainings, technical assistance, collaborative projects, and strategic partnerships, the organization helped participants develop narrative skills, document community experiences, amplify local voices, and build capacity for civic participation, community problem-solving, and social change.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 91% 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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and some filed totals do not add up.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 87
  • Transparency & Controls: 84
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 56
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 81.2%; rating input score 81
  • Program expense ratio: 96.3%; rating input score 96
  • Fundraising efficiency: $347.84 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 93; 93rd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 90%; rating input score 90; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 16%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.78; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 11.3%; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 8% per year; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 3.8% per year; rating input score 100; 30th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 7.4% per year; rating input score 100; 46th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 81.2% of revenue deployed · 96.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $552K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $65K · 6 people listed
  • Consistency: 20 of 21 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 10 filing years from 2016 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • 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.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 36/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 33/100.