Professional Artistic Research Projects
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 471305368
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2021–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2019, Form 990-N 2017
- Location
- Cincinnati, OH, USA
- Phone
- 5133946564
- Rating
- 80
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Arts Education
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $265,853
- Expenses
- $276,796
- Assets
- $1,793,850
- Liabilities
- $96,251
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Jonathan Sears (Executive Director)
- Herbert Robinson (President of the board)
- Rachel Schwartzman Murphy (Vice President of the board)
Highest reported compensation
- Jonathan Sears (Executive Director): $42,000 total reported compensation
- Gabrielle Roach (Arts & Programming Coordinator): $38,279 total reported compensation
- Alisha Budkie (Campaign & Development Manager): $13,350 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
PAR-Projects' mission is to empower diverse communities of people who believe in the arts. As educators, we provide classes and workshops related to creative career paths. As working artists, we enjoy hosting thought-provoking exhibitions and collaborations with regional artists focused on making creatively compelling statements.
What it reported doing in 2024
Arts and Exhibition Facilities: We create space for artists to collaborate and engage with community, while expanding their social and professional networks. This is accomplished via the creation of pop-up (temporary) galleries and the ongoing renovation & expansion of our creative campus, locate in Northside, Cincinnati. Within these spaces we exhibit artwork & creative statements, oftentimes absorbing the cost of travel, shipping, and installation to alleviate burdens often faced by mid-career artists.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 86% 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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 88
- Transparency & Controls: 85
- Accountability: 62
- Sustainability: 44
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 98.1%; rating input score 98
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 75%; rating input score 75; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 44
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -4.1%; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 6.48; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 32; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 36.7%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 10.8% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 21.1% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 21.2% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 98.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 6 of 8 board members independent · 4 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $272K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $42K · 11 people listed
- Consistency: 41 of 42 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2021 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 5 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 8 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 31/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 7/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 32/100.