Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society

What it reported doing in 2024

The purpose of the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society is to raise funds for the identification, acquisition, development, restoration, preservation, maintenance, cataloging, and conservation of historical sites, artifacts, and structures within The Santa Clarita Valley. We also organize and sponsor functions that bring these items of historical significance to the public and the public to these items through local tours and functions at The History Center. During this fiscal year, we were able to once again host a community historical tour of the St. Francis Dam National Memorial site, approximately 100 people were taken on a walking tour of the site and learned the history leading up to the demise of the dam. We have continued our ongoing restoration and maintenance program making significant progress on various projects related to our structures.We are continuing the task of cataloging and scanning our hundreds of thousands of images and other artifacts relating to the history of the Santa Clarita Valley with a full time supervising archivist. We continue to receive donations from community members on a regular basis from across the country that we are adding to our collection. This is an ongoing project but we are determined to have digital records of our collection preserved for generations to come.We are marketing and promoting under the name Santa Clarita History Center as a DBA, and are in the process of becoming an accredited museum to be able to open up our historical structures to the public once again as our restoration and maintenance programs allow. We have recently completed the first phase of our transformation to a museum by renovating portions of the interior of the Saugus Train Station which is now open to the public.Please refer to our website at www.scvhs.org for additional information.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 87%; rating input score 87
• Program expense ratio: 68.7%; rating input score 69
• Fundraising efficiency: $12.38 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings

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: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 3 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 43
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Fail
  • Document-retention policy: Fail
  • 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: -26.4%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.45; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 21.9% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 16.3% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 3% per year; rating input score 100; 38th percentile among comparable filings