Starkville Area Arts Council

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
640883420
IRS 990 coverage
2011–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Starkville, MS, USA
Phone
6627220103
Rating
80
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Arts Council/Agency

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$87,980
Expenses
$129,882
Assets
$123,654
Liabilities
$16,819

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

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • VACANT (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
  • CHRISTINE ROGERS-KELLY (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • VACANT (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $38,333 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

To build a strong, creative, connected community through the arts.

What it reported doing in 2024

Art education & outreach. This program is an umbrella for several initiatives, all related to arts and arts education outreach. Art partners provides a teaching artist to 4 locations in the starkville area to provide extracurricular art enrichment to youth at no cost to the site partner or attendees. Art in the park is a one-day free, hands-on art "festival" for kids and families, where youth are exposed to all art disciplines and get to take home any projects they create. Saac also participates in 2 community events with free art activity booths as a way to spark creative interest in the public.economic development through art. This program is an umbrella for several initiatives, all which support art as business efforts. Art in public places is a reduced-commission art gallery experience hosted in downtown starkville and facilitates the sale of art for artists in multiple shows each fiscal year. Cotton district arts festival. This event is part fundraiser, part program. This festival is one of the largest art festivals in the state, providing 4 stages of music and entertainment for no admission to the public. The festival also awards numerous monetary prizes directly to artists for meritorious efforts.grants and scholarships are awarded in the starkville area. Scholarships are awarded to teenagers based on merit and need for summer arts programs. Grants are awarded to teachers, local community art groups, and individuals for various art education and art-related projects, whether general or project grants, hiring of musicians, creation of public art, and more.

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 95% 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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 78
  • Transparency & Controls: 93
  • Accountability: 79
  • Sustainability: 24
  • Growth: 80

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 97.5%; rating input score 98
  • Program expense ratio: 65.5%; rating input score 65
  • Fundraising efficiency: $1.59 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 20; 20th 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • 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: -47.6%; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.95; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.14; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 29.5%; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 4.9% per year; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 1.6% per year; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -0.1% per year; rating input score 0; 40th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 97.5% of revenue deployed · 65.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $85K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $38K · 8 people listed
  • Consistency: 26 of 26 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes grants
  • Filing history: 13 filing years from 2011 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 20/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 30/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 24/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 10/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 17/100.