Omaha Performing Arts

Legal name: Omaha Performing Arts Society

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
470832480
IRS 990 coverage
2009–2024
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
Location
Omaha, NE, US
Phone
402.345.0202
Rating
84
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Performing Arts Organizations

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$43,124,760
Expenses
$41,238,161
Assets
$46,532,797
Liabilities
$17,288,651

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

Leadership & pay

20 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Joan Squires (President)
  • Arnold Reeves (Senior Vice President and CFO)
  • Sabrina Weiss (Vice President of Development)
  • Ashley Voorhees (Vice President of Administrative Services)
  • Lee Turkovich (Vice President of Marketing and Communications)
  • Bianca Harley (Vice President of Human Capital and Inclusion)

Highest reported compensation

  • Joan Squires (President): $673,607 total reported compensation
  • Arnold Reeves (Senior Vice President and CFO): $259,268 total reported compensation
  • Sabrina Weiss (Vice President of Development): $210,121 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Omaha Performing Arts brings people together through extraordinary live performances and arts engagement experiences that enrich, educate, and inspire our community.

What it reported doing in 2024

Omaha Performing Arts' mission includes enriching the community through education and community engagement activities and initiatives. In the past 20 years, more than 615,000 students and community members have participated in a variety of programs including Jazz on the Green, Student Matinees, Master Classes, workshops and more. Omaha Performing Arts provides four Education and Community Engagement programs in conjunction with national partners: Disney Musicals in Schools, in which underserved elementary schools receive significant resources to produce an annual Disney KIDS musical; Musical Explorers, a curriculum-based music education program for grades K-2 produced in partnership with Carnegie Hall; Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts, a Pre-K arts education program that integrates music, dance, theatre, puppetry, and storytelling, and the Broadway League's National High School Musical Theatre Awards program, which provides top Nebraska Theater Academy students the chance to train with Broadway professionals. Other educational offerings include Student Rush, which offers deeply discounted tickets to students. Additional community engagement offerings include Voices AMPLIFIED!, a cultural engagement series that celebrates artists from various cultures and creates opportunities for discussion, reflection, and new experiences, and Arts Access, which provides organizations serving at-risk and low-income populations with free tickets to select performances.

Operating model

Revenue model
Other-operating. 69% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
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

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: 81
  • Transparency & Controls: 84
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 47
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 83.7%; rating input score 84
  • Program expense ratio: 87.2%; rating input score 87
  • Fundraising efficiency: $13.84 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • 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: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 23rd 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: 4.4%; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.13; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.37; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 4.8%; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 7.7% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 5.9% per year; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 5.8% per year; rating input score 100; 41st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 4 programs and campaigns described on the official site
  • Where the money goes: 83.7% of revenue deployed · 87.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 10 of 11 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $36M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $674K · 20 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $8M reported
  • Consistency: 41 of 41 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 16 filing years from 2009 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 8 filed money-flow records
  • 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.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 47/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 52/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 40/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 39/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 52/100.