Portland Art Museum
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 930391604
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Location
- Portland, OR, USA
- Phone
- 503-226-2811
- Rating
- 76
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Art Museums
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $31,333,273
- Expenses
- $27,731,361
- Assets
- $258,476,784
- Liabilities
- $28,883,008
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
64 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- BRIAN J FERRISO (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- BRIAN J FERRISO (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $597,030 total reported compensation
- GARETH A NEVITT (CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER): $225,654 total reported compensation
- KARIE BURCH (DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT): $216,574 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 Portland Art Museum connects people with art and ideas, fostering creativity and understanding through its collections, exhibitions, and programs.
What it reported doing in 2024
The museum's center for an untold tomorrow is a year-round organization and space where artists and audiences explore our region and the world through cinema and cinematic storytelling in all its forms. Its mission is to expand the reach of cinema as an art form and challenge for whom, by whom and how stories can be told. Through its non-traditional, unbound festivals, screenings, events, co: laboratory adult and youth classes and workshops, audiences and artists form connections that bind our community and encourage a more vibrant, accessible, and diverse media-arts ecosystem.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 62% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- 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
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 68
- Transparency & Controls: 73
- Accountability: 93
- Sustainability: 73
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 70.7%; rating input score 71
- Program expense ratio: 76.7%; rating input score 77
- Fundraising efficiency: $6.26 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 25; 25th 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: Missing
- Written employment contract: Pass
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 96.4%; rating input score 96; 30th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 11.5%; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 9.32; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.11; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 6.9%; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 3.4% per year; rating input score 100; 29th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 7.6% per year; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 5.6% per year; rating input score 100; 39th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 8 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 70.7% of revenue deployed · 76.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 54 of 56 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $21.3M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $597K · 64 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $49.9M reported
- Consistency: 39 of 39 current checks pass
- Schedules: 11 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, 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
- 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 — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 25/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 37/100.