Shenandoah Valley Discovery Museum Inc

What it reported doing in 2024

2024 was a year of creativity and growth for the Shenandoah Discovery Museum. The museum had a direct impact on over 71,000 people through field trips, camps, STEAM nights and in person visits. Our total impact was beyond 102,500 people. We transformed our water shed area, installing a new custom-made water table reflecting the Chesapeake Watershed complete with a full-sized crab fishing boat. We also added a Food Truck to our Discover the Valley: Food for Thought exhibit on the second floor completing the farm to fork loop. Our new food truck invites visitors to cook their bounty collected from all of the other exhibit components throughout the floor. We celebrated our ribbon cutting on second floor with an enormous amount of community excitement for the new educational components. Our community also gathered to celebrate a fun Star Light Star Bright Illuminate the Night gala in September. We got the opportunity to welcome back a wonderful family who have supported and celebrated the museum several times through the years. This year they decided to kick off the Hess Family Summer Camp Scholarship fund. We continue to grow our attendance raising the number of active members families from 685 families in 2023 to 720 families in 2024. Our summer camps welcomed 503 total campers even though the local school systems shortened the summer vacation by almost 2 full weeks. We were able to offer 71 scholarships. We also welcomed 10% of our total attendance as Mission Driven attendance; including either free or reduced attendance for over 4,500 visitors. The Shenandoah Valley Discovery Museum stays firmly committed to opening our doors as wide as possible and adding wonderful new ways to achieve our mission of: Sparking Curiosity and Inspiring Learning Through Exploration and Creative Play.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 71%; rating input score 71
• Program expense ratio: 79.1%; rating input score 79
• Fundraising efficiency: $5.22 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 19; 19th 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: 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 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Fail
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 21.5%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 7.21; rating input score 89; 89th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 12.9%; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: -1.6% per year; rating input score 0; 13th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: -1.5% per year; rating input score 0; 10th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 1.3% per year; rating input score 100; 22nd percentile among comparable filings