Poetry Society of America
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 136019220
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2012–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- New York, NY, USA
- Phone
- 2122549628
- Rating
- 79
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Humanities Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,192,427
- Expenses
- $896,904
- Assets
- $6,606,338
- Liabilities
- $423,023
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
21 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- CATHERINE WOODARD (PRESIDENT)
- MAJOR JACKSON (FIRST VICE PRESIDENT)
- GARY ELLIS (VICE PRESIDENT)
- JACQUELINE WOODSON (VICE PRESIDENT)
- MATT BROGAN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- MATT BROGAN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $144,397 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The poetry society of america, the nation's oldest poetry organization, was founded in 1910. Its mission is to build a larger and more diverse audience for poetry, to encourage a deeper appreciation of the vitality (continued on schedule o)and breadth of poetry in the cultural conversation, and to place poetry at the crossroads of american life.
What it reported doing in 2024
Poetry and public spacesince 1992, the poetry society has presented poetry in motion, which places poems in transit systems around the country, creating unexpected and meaningful encounters in public spaces between poems and millions of readers. In 2021, the program expanded to include the Washington dc area metro system and path/port authority stations in New Jersey and New York. The program serves approximately 9 million people each year. Poetry in motion is now the cornerstone of a larger array of programs in public space, including partnerships with civic organizations to present poetry-based public art projects. In 2022, the poetry society partnered with the downtown brooklyn partnership to preset seeing into tomorrow, which transformed poems by richard wright into large-scale installations on walls in several brooklyn neighborhoods. In april 2023, the poetry society launched park poems, a partnership with nyc parks to place poems in five public parks, one in each borough. In 2024, park poems expanded to include partnerships with New York state parks, the national park service, and the brooklyn botanical garden. In 2025, the poetry society launched the poem district, with poems installed on walls and windows in the neighborhood surrounding its brooklyn storefront space. Finally, this program area also includes poems on wheels, a partnership with meals on wheels chapters around the country to provide poems along with nourishing meals to homebound seniors.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 84% 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 and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 61
- Transparency & Controls: 89
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 73
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 61.9%; rating input score 62
- Program expense ratio: 66.3%; rating input score 66
- Fundraising efficiency: $10.08 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 93.8%; rating input score 94; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 94.5%; rating input score 94; 41st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- 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: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 24.8%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 7.37; rating input score 89; 89th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.06; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 16.1%; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 5.9% per year; rating input score 100; 47th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 6.3% per year; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 4.8% per year; rating input score 100; 38th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 61.9% of revenue deployed · 66.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 20 of 20 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $595K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $144K · 21 people listed
- Consistency: 32 of 33 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 13 filing years from 2012 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 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 38/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Whistleblower policy not reported.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 21/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 49/100.