Northern Clay Center

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN: 411616650
IRS 990 coverage: 2010–2025
Forms available: Form 990 2025, Form 990-T 2025
Location: Minneapolis, MN, USA
Phone: 6123398007
Rating: 88
Verdict: STRONG
Rating confidence: Moderate
Sector: Arts Education

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue: $1,810,961
Expenses: $2,232,889
Assets: $3,562,566
Liabilities: $367,170

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

Leadership & pay

13 people listed

Highest reported compensation

KYLE RUDY-KOHLHEPP (EXEC DIR THR): $77,647 total reported compensation
JUDY HAWKINSON (EXECUTIVE DI): $45,068 total reported compensation
KATE MAURY (BOARD MEMBER): $1,032 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Northern clay center's mission is to advance the ceramic arts for artists, learners, and the community, through education, exhibitions, and artist services. Its goals are to create and promote high-quality, relevant, and participatory ceramic arts educational experiences; cultivate and challenge ceramic arts audiences through extraordinary exhibitions and programming; support ceramic artists in the expansion of their artistic and professional skills; embrace makers from diverse cultures and traditions in order to create a more inclusive clay community; and excel as a non-profit arts organization.

What it reported doing in 2025

1) exhibitions promote public appreciation and understanding of the ceramic arts through displays of regional, national, and international artists' work. Through virtual tours and decreased capacities for in-person viewing, ncc presented the installed work of exhibiting artists to the public in various ways. 2) the american pottery festival (apf) is an annual special event - a weekend of artist lectures and demonstrations, collector tours, and sale of pots - designed to expand and educate the local audience for national and regional potters and generate revenue for both ncc and the artists.

Operating model

Revenue model: Earned-program. 74% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
Distribution model: Direct operator. The filing allocates 93% 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

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: 87
Transparency & Controls: 94
Accountability: 95
Sustainability: 29
Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
Program expense ratio: 87.8%; rating input score 88
Fundraising efficiency: $4.85 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
Pay-setting controls: Limited
Foreign activity oversight: Limited
Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

Independent voting board: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 26th 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: -23.3%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.6; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.1; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings
Officer compensation ratio: 5.5%; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

Program expense growth: 1.9% per year; rating input score 100; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
Revenue growth: 0.5% per year; rating input score 100; 13th percentile among comparable filings
Asset growth: 0.3% per year; rating input score 100; 16th percentile among comparable filings

Details

Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 87.8% of spending went to programs
Governance: 10 of 11 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $2M in reported program spending
Leadership: top reported pay $78K · 13 people listed
Consistency: 34 of 34 current checks pass
Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
Filing history: 16 filing years from 2010 to 2025
Contacts: How to reach this organization
Money network: 3 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.
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.

High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 15/100.
High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 5/100.
Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 57/100.
Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 34/100.
Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 49/100.