North Iowa Childrens Museum
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 872323329
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2022–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025
- Location
- Clear Lake, IA, USA
- Phone
- 7209889420
- Rating
- 68
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Children's Museums
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $19,559
- Expenses
- $28,524
- Assets
- $109,627
- Liabilities
- $407
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- LORENA MALECHA (President)
People named in this filing
- LORENA MALECHA (President)
- JANESE HAND (Secretary)
- ELLEN PRITCHARD SEDLOCK (Director)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Serving the needs and interests of children by providing experiential play exhibits and programs that spark a love of learning, curiosity, exploration, and wonder.
What it reported doing in 2025
AWARENESS PROMOTIONS: The North Iowa Children's Museum empowers children to explore, learn, and imagine through engaging hands-on exhibits and interactive programs that spark curiosity, foster creativity, and inspire a lifelong love of learning. In a vibrant, dynamic environment, we nurture critical thinking, collaboration, and a sense of wonder, inviting every child to discover the world around them through the joy of play.The Museum significantly expanded community awareness through mobile exhibits and public engagement events, reaching approximately 30,000 children and families across North Iowa since its inception in 2022. These interactive experiences were designed to support diverse learning styles and developmental needs, promoting gross and fine motor skills, imaginative play, problem solving, and social collaboration.On 04/09/2025, the Museum participated in the North Iowa Area Community College (NIACC) STEM Festival, serving 311 attendees. The Museum provided a variety of hands-on exhibits, including a Giant Light Bright, wind tunnel, magnetic board, and big blue building blocks, offering children engaging opportunities to explore science, engineering, and creative play.On 09/27/2025, the Museum hosted its fourth annual When Pigs Fly community fundraiser, with 233 tickets sold. This highly visible event featured foam pigs dropped from an airplane, with prizes awarded to participants whose pigs landed closest to a target. Additional activities included slingshot launches, a live piglet petting zoo, a corn pit, and tractor rides. New elements introduced in 2025, including a Celebrity Kiss a Pig contest and large-scale pig kites, further increased community engagement and visibility.Throughout 2025, the Museum prioritized outreach and relationship-building with key community stakeholders, business leaders, and prospective exhibit partners. These efforts strengthened regional awareness and support while laying the groundwork for the successful acquisition of land for the Museums permanent facility, completed on 01/15/2026.Recognizing the critical importance of early childhood experiences, the North Iowa Childrens Museum remains committed to expanding access to enriching, play-based learning environments that support lifelong educational and developmental outcomes.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent revenue detail to tell how this nonprofit funds its work.
- 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
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 49
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 33
- Growth: 40
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 55.9%; rating input score 56
- Program expense ratio: 38.3%; rating input score 38
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -45.8%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.84; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 32.4%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 36% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -55.8% per year; rating input score 0; 5th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -3.1% per year; rating input score 0; 28th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 55.9% of revenue deployed · 38.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $11K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 56/100.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 38/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 13/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 6/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 28/100.