Sonoma Valley Historical Society

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
942430797
IRS 990 coverage
2014–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Sonoma, CA, USA
Phone
7079381762
Rating
84
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Historical Societies & Historic Preservation

Reported finances

Revenue
$135,755
Expenses
$124,713
Assets
$462,876
Liabilities
$641

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

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Charlotte Gallaway (Vice President)
  • PATRICIA CULLINAN (President)

People named in this filing

  • Kathleen Hill (Director)
  • MICHAEL ACKER (Director)
  • DR PETER MEYERHOF (Director)

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

Sonoma Valley Historical Society (the Society) is a not-for-profit culturalinstitution founded in 1937 and its mission is to provide a forum and a resource for the study and dissemination of Sonoma Valley history for present and future generations by identifying collecting, preserving and sharing artifacts, documents and images.

What it reported doing in 2024

The Society maintains an archive and research center at the Marcy House, an historic building leased from the City of Sonoma. In 2019 the Society continued to inventory and catalog historic documents about the Sonoma Valley in its collection and provided access to the collection to the public.The Society operates the Depot Park Museum for the City of Sonoma. The Society uses it collections to present exhibitions for the public several times a year at the Museum and also provides tours of the exhibits at the Museum to school groups.The California State Library, through their California Revealed Project, granted funds for the inventorying and cataloguing of 1500 archival items by personnel of the Sonoma Valley Historical Society. The California Revealed program alsog accepted over 1800 rare Sonoma Valley newspapers nominated by the Sonoma Valley Historical Society for digitizing that will be made available to the public online on the Internet Archive website.California Missions Paintings - The Society acquired and then restored the entire oil painting collection of California Missions by Mattie Fountain.History and Me, Third Grade Project-Through a grant from a donor, the program engaged third grade students in the history of their community and fulfilled Common Core Social Studies standards as well as involving mathematics and writing skills.

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

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 82
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 76
  • Sustainability: 63
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 89.7%; rating input score 90
  • Program expense ratio: 82.5%; rating input score 82
  • Fundraising efficiency: $10.2 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 40; 40th 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: 3 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 43
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 8.1%; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.71; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 1% per year; rating input score 100; 35th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 6% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 1.8% per year; rating input score 100; 32nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 89.7% of revenue deployed · 82.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 3 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $103K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 9 people listed
  • Consistency: 19 of 19 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 10 filing years from 2014 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • 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.

  • Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 6 not reported.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 40/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 57/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 55/100.