Prism Design Lab Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
883306253
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2024–2025
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2023
Location
Chapel Hill, NC, USA
Phone
9192251221
Rating
64
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Education N.E.C.
Affiliation
Christianity

Reported finances

Revenue
$82,500
Expenses
$78,601
Assets
$59,434

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

Leadership & pay

6 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Heather Ferrell (Executive Director)

People named in this filing

  • Heather Ferrell (Executive Director)
  • Chelsea Davis (Board of Directors)
  • Cortland Gilliam (Board of Directors)

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

Prism Design Lab (Prism) is an arts and education nonprofit organization that works with young people in Chapel Hill and Durham, North Carolina. Our mission is to equip youth with the tools they need to shape their built environment by teaching them design skills, giving them the opportunity to practice and cultivate these skills, and supporting them to share their creativity through public art and design services provided to civic organizations like other community-based nonprofit organizations.

What it reported doing in 2025

Exploring Architecture Workshops - Workshops in Public Schools for Middle and Elementary Students; Benefitted 1105 students

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 100% 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.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and program spending has grown recently. 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: 35
  • Transparency & Controls: 100
  • Sustainability: 37
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 34.7%; rating input score 35
  • Program expense ratio: 36.4%; rating input score 36

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: 4.7%; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.76; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
  • Officer compensation ratio: 32.1%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 30.4% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 4.3% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 6.8% per year; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 34.7% of revenue deployed · 36.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $29K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 6 people listed
  • Consistency: 6 of 6 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 2 filing years from 2024 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 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.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 35/100.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 36/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 53/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 40/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 6/100.