Seattle Art Museum

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
910640788
IRS 990 coverage
2009–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
Location
Seattle, WA, USA
Phone
2066543210
Rating
77
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Art Museums

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$38,334,278
Expenses
$44,443,243
Assets
$403,450,549
Liabilities
$24,678,091

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

74 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • CATHERINE ROCHE (PRESIDENT)
  • CARLA LEWIS (PAST PRESIDENT)
  • SUSAN BROTMAN (VICE PRESIDENT)
  • STEWART LANDEFELD (VICE PRESIDENT)
  • JON SHIRLEY (VICE PRESIDENT)
  • WINNIE STRATTON (VICE PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • CHRIS LANDMAN (CHIEF DEVELOPMENT OFFICER): $288,354 total reported compensation
  • JEFFREY DRAEGER (ILL BALL NORDSTROM DIR. THRU 08/24): $281,103 total reported compensation
  • JOSE DIAZ (DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF ART): $260,960 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Founded in 1917, the seattle art museum (sam) connects art to life. As the leading visual art institution in the pacific northwest, sam draws on its global collections, powerful special exhibitions, numerous installations, and dynamic programs to fulfill its important role as a cultural and educational resource benefitting the seattle region, the pacific northwest, and beyond. From a strong foundation of asian art to noteworthy collections of african and oceanic art, northwest coast native american art, european and american art, and modern and contemporary art, the strength of sam's collection of approximately 25,000 objects lies in its diversity of media, cultures, and time periods. With three locations (seattle art museum, olympic sculpture park, seattle asian art museum), sam harnesses the power of art to enrich lives and engage diverse communities, including hundreds of thousands of visitors, as well as thousands of seattle-area students.

What it reported doing in 2024

Museum services: providing a public art museum including the accession of art objects as well as public art exhibitions and art education for the general public. Museum patrons visited this year at three different seattle locations - the seattle art museum, the olympic sculpture park and the asian art museum.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
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.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and the filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 83
  • Transparency & Controls: 61
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 44
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 74.6%; rating input score 75
  • Fundraising efficiency: $5.14 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Pass
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Grant itemization coverage: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th 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: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -15.9%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 9.08; rating input score 90; 90th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.06; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 5.7%; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 4.4% per year; rating input score 100; 37th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 2.2% per year; rating input score 100; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 3.3% per year; rating input score 100; 25th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 74.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 62 of 62 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $33.1M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $288K · 74 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $2.8M reported
  • Consistency: 39 of 40 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 10 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, executive pay, and related organizations
  • Filing history: 16 filing years from 2009 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 12 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 3 filed related-organization links
  • 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.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
  • High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 0/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 21/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 6/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 45/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.