Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 116037002
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Location
- Centerport, NY, USA
- Phone
- 6318545550
- Rating
- 76
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Museum, Museum Activities
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $3,971,829
- Expenses
- $4,520,468
- Assets
- $18,996,800
- Liabilities
- $570,764
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
15 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JAMES KELLY (PRESIDENT)
- GRETCHEN OLDRIN-MONES (FIRST VICE PRESIDENT)
- JACK DEMASI (SECOND VICE PRESIDENT)
- ELIZABETH WAYLAND-MORGAN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- ELIZABETH WAYLAND-MORGAN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $185,628 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
"the suffolk county vanderbilt museum - a unique combination of mansion, marine and natural history museum, planetarium and park - is dedicated to the education and enjoyment of the people of long island and beyond. This mission shall be achieved through the thoughtful preservation, interpretation and enhancement of the eagle's nest estate as an informal educational facility. Many exhibition and program themes focus upon long island's gold coast era. Programs also concentrate on william k. Vanderbilt ii's desire that his marine, natural history, and ethnographic collections promote appreciation and understanding of the marvelous diversity of life, other cultures, and scientific knowledge. Planetarium programming, more specifically, focuses on scientific knowledge and seeks to capture mr. Vanderbilt's sense of adventure and exploration through state-of-the-art entertainment."
What it reported doing in 2024
Educational services - these expenses relate to the various educational programs presented by the staff of the museum. Also included are costs relating to the group tours of the grounds and admissions to the museum. Eagle's nest is the summer home of william k. Vanderbilt ii, the great-grandson of cornelius vanderbilt. Listed on the national register of historic places, eagle's nest was built initially in 1910 as a small english cottage. Over the next 30 years, the house grew into the sprawling 24 room spanish-revival mansion that is seen today. Eagle's nest was designed by famed architects warren and wetmore, who took inspiration from the architecture of spain and northern africa, and adorned with ironwork made by master craftsman samuel yellin. Unique among many mansions, eagle's nest was not only built with living space for mr. Vanderbilt and his family, but also museum space where vanderbilt could showcase the thousands of natural history and cultural specimens he had collected from his travels. The mansion's living quarters offers an intimate look at the life of a privileged family from the jazz age through the second world war. The rooms are as william and rosamond vanderbilt left them, filled with priceless art, furnishings, and personal possessions. When visitors walk through the vanderbilt mansion, they enter a "living museum," an enchanting time capsule of a vanished era. Mr. Vanderbilt's oceanic expeditions and unprecedented circumnavigations of the globe make it possible for visitors to journey around the planet without leaving long island. His specimen-hunting trips to the galapagos islands, throughout the pacific, asia, the mediterranean, africa, the atlantic and caribbean, yielded thousands of specimens of marine, bird and insect life, some of them new discoveries at the time vanderbilt found them. Wanting to share his collection with the world, mr. Vanderbilt constructed several museum spaces throughout the estate. Today, visitors can explore 4 separate wings to see these collections. These wings are as follows: the memorial wing, the habitat wing, the nursery wing, and the hall of fishes.
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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 68
- Transparency & Controls: 74
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 45
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 78.9%; rating input score 79
- Program expense ratio: 67.7%; rating input score 68
- Fundraising efficiency: $4.41 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- 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: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- 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: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -13.8%; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.2; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 4.1%; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 8.7% per year; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 5.6% per year; rating input score 100; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 22.7% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 78.9% of revenue deployed · 67.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 13 of 13 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $3.1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $186K · 15 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 33 of 33 current checks pass
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 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.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 14/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 10/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Document-retention policy not reported.