The Adler Planetarium

What it reported doing in 2024

Whether the adler planetarium is introducing a guest to the ring nebula, a neighborhood school to a community partner, a research team to a network of citizen scientists, or one staff member to another, the museum's focus on meaningful connections dates back nearly a century. The adler typically hosts approximately a half a million visitors each year and reaches millions more through youth steam programs, neighborhood skywatching events, people-powered research, and other outreach efforts. Today, the adler is also bringing our unique approach - scientific exploration rooted in community and connection - to guests from around the world who can enjoy the digital adler for their own homes, libraries, schools or offices. With the adler's support, people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities gain the confidence to explore their universe together and return to their communities ready to think critically and creatively about any challenge that comes their way. The museum has an online ticketing platform, and an operating model that has significantly improved per capita ticket revenue through changes made since the covid pandemic. This includes a schedule of public hours every wednesday evening for our exhibitions, sky shows, and telescope viewing. New content offerings, like an award-winning, original planetarium show niyah and the multiverse and a new exhibition other worlds, support good attendance. School-group-only days are providing meaningful experiences at the museum for 10,000s of educators and their students. In 2024, a major renovation was completed of areas used to care for the adler's historic astronomy artifacts, one of the world's most important collections telling the story of the human connection with the sky. Adler is continuing its engagement in online spaces, welcoming millions of people around the world into adler experiences, through storytelling and engaging directly in science and discovery. Zooniverse.org, a collaboration between chicago's adler planetarium, the university of oxford, and the university of Minnesota, is the world's largest platform for people-powered research. It is made possible by volunteersalmost 3 million registered participants around the worldwho come together to assist professional researchers whose work would not be possible, or practical, otherwise. Zooniverse research results in new discoveries, datasets which are useful to the wider research community, and numerous publications. Each month participants submit over 6 million classifications, part of the more than 940 million "acts of science" completed since the founding in 2009. 150+ research institutions partner with adler's zooniverse to lead more than 100 participatory science projects each year, resulting in over 500 peer-reviewed publications to date. Through a rich array of digital programming, from our skywatch wednesday online planetarium show to our sky observer's hangout youtube livestream events with our public observing team to our wow! Signal science sketch comedy and musicals to our online google arts & cultural exhibitions, the adler has continued to provide a rich array of opportunities to foster connections and create space for the wonders of our universe and casting science as the stories of humanity. Adler teens continued to work closely with adler scientists and engineers to advance the first-ever comprehensive light-pollution survey of chicago. Far horizons teens investigated how light pollution affects trees on the museum campus, while the yolo teens in little village engaged their school and broader community in light-pollution research and local advocacy efforts. Our long-running high-altitude balloon program and ground-based observing network continue to monitor light pollution across chicago and other urban environmentscritical work as cities rapidly evolve and deploy new lighting solutions. This year also saw deepening collaborations with the national parks service as well as the urban wildlife institute

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 67.1%; rating input score 67
• Program expense ratio: 71%; rating input score 71
• Fundraising efficiency: $8.5 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 34; 34th 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: Pass
  • Written employment contract: Missing
  • Compensation survey or study: Pass
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
• Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 20.3%; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.14; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.41; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 12.3%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: -3.2% per year; rating input score 0; 5th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 0.7% per year; rating input score 100; 11th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 0.3% per year; rating input score 100; 11th percentile among comparable filings