The Royall House and Slave Quarters
Legal name: Royall House Association
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 046046749
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Medford, MA, USA
- Phone
- 7813969032
- Rating
- 85
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $389,979
- Expenses
- $352,206
- Assets
- $1,762,225
- Liabilities
- $6,370
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- PETER GITTLEMAN (PRESIDENT & TREASURER)
- PENNY OUTLAW (VICE PRESIDENT)
People named in this filing
- PETER GITTLEMAN (PRESIDENT & TREASURER)
- PENNY OUTLAW (VICE PRESIDENT)
- CUTHBERT THOMAS (ASST. TREASURER)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The Royall House and Slave Quarters is a museum and historic site that preserves and interprets the only known extant separate slave quarters in the northern United States, exploring the history of slavery, resistance, and the legacies of the slave trade in New England.
What it reported doing in 2024
The royall house and slave quarters continues to experience significant growth. In fy25, our museum and our director was featured in harper's bazaar. We partnered with the boston art triennial to host programs about black cultural production across the city of boston and medford. These include workshops such as weaving, sewing, tie and dye, and traditional hair braiding workshops. We have had over 150 people attend these workshops. In july, we hosted our annual reading of frederick douglass "what to the slave is the fourth of july? And it grew to 150 people during the fy25 year. Our summer season of 2024 had a really nice turnout with visitors coming to the museum consistently. We have continued to expand our reach and grow our influence through private tours and partnerships throughout Massachusetts. We have had school groups visit from across the state, and we have served student groups from local programs in roxbury to national summer programs from long beach, California. Overall, attendance is diversifying, and the museum is growing in terms of our program and our local and national reputation.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 80% 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 79
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 88
- Sustainability: 65
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 80.6%; rating input score 81
- Program expense ratio: 84.1%; rating input score 84
- Fundraising efficiency: $15.42 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 5 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 71
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 9.7%; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 5; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 13% per year; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 15.5% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 10.7% per year; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 6 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 80.6% of revenue deployed · 84.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 5 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $296K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 11 people listed
- Consistency: 23 of 23 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2011 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- 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.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 51/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 59/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 52/100.