Newark Arts Council

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
222412819
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Newark, NJ, USA
Phone
9736431625
Rating
82
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,657,116
Expenses
$1,844,165
Assets
$606,607
Liabilities
$177,365

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

Leadership & pay

18 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • DONNA WALKER-KUHNE (VICE PRESIDENT)
  • MARCY S DEPINA (PRESIDENT)
  • SAMER HANINI (VICE PRESIDENT)
  • LAUREN CRAIG (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • LAUREN CRAIG (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $124,168 total reported compensation
  • REGINA BARBOZA (DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT AN): $112,734 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Newark arts' mission is to power the arts to transform the lives of those who live in, work in, and visit newark.

What it reported doing in 2024

Newark's largest festival of visual arts and other art forms. In 2022, newark arts festival: artful healing opening night drew more than 1,000 visitors at the newark museum of art (nmoa). For the first time ever, the museum hosted the festival's main group exhibition in one of its galleries. In 2021, the newark arts festival: creative resilience returned to an in-person, 2-month long event that attracted nearly 10,000 attendees throughout the city. Centered in an 18,000 square-foot hahne & co. Building retail space, the festival created a post-covid downtown destination and garnered broadcast and national print coverage for its dionne warwick: queen of twitter feature exhibit and gallery of 158 works by local artists.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 69% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 88% 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 expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 82
  • Transparency & Controls: 80
  • Accountability: 96
  • Sustainability: 18
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 90.7%; rating input score 91
  • Program expense ratio: 81.5%; rating input score 82
  • Fundraising efficiency: $9.47 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 61.6%; rating input score 62; 31st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 93.8%; rating input score 94; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • 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: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -11.3%; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.33; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.29; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 12.8%; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 13.2% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 11.9% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 13% per year; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 90.7% of revenue deployed · 81.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 15 of 16 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $1.5M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $124K · 18 people listed
  • Consistency: 32 of 33 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 7 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 5 filed related-organization links
  • 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.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 36/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 16/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 15/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 25/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 28/100.