Rocky Ridge Music Center Foundation

What it reported doing in 2024

Preservation of our historic facility.preservation and modernization of our historical campus is an ongoing effort and part of our board's focus. This year we invested $30,927 in capital expenditures to upgrade facilities and conversions to other other uses. Our facility was homesteaded and constructed as an inn in the early 1900s, occupied by rocky ridge since 1951, and was declared a national historic district in the early 1990s. The rustic historic feel is integral to the intimate, personal nature of our music education experience. Nature and community are part of our mission statement and the small student body and the close communal living in rustic cabins reinforce the mutual support the students feel for each other's accomplishments. Thus, it is imperative that we preserve the historic nature of our facility while carefully modernizing it to meet current safety codes and student expectations. By modernizing our campus, our goal is to keep the accommodations comfortable for today's students' expectations - both adult and youth - so that our program and the facility continue and prosper. It has also been necessary to bring the facility up to current safety codes which we have accomplished. We are careful to keep the historic aesthetic of our campus in these modernizations. We began modernization in the early 1990s when the owner/founder turned the organization over to a volunteer IRS sec 501(c)(3) board. Grants from the state historical fund (shf) were crucial in getting the process started by addressing the two major buildings at the heart of the campus. Later shf grants helped restore 3 cabins. It has been a long process to catch up, and then match, the standards of modern codes and student expectations, and it is ongoing. For example in 2018 and 2019 we replaced the second of three septic systems, winterized one cabin for year-round living for seasonal staff, and installed the water/sewage infrastrucure and added a bathroom to a cabin. We are now replacing our water filtration system that processes surface water for our camp.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 76.8%; rating input score 77
• Program expense ratio: 80.5%; rating input score 81
• Fundraising efficiency: $4.49 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: Limited
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 76th 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: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Fail
  • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • 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: 4.8%; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.14; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.24; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 12%; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: -0.6% per year; rating input score 0; 16th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: -0.1% per year; rating input score 0; 14th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: -2% per year; rating input score 0; 12th percentile among comparable filings