The Arlington Institute

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
541524343
IRS 990 coverage
2023–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2022, Form 990-N 2021
Location
Berkeley Springs, WV, USA
Phone
2029095558
Rating
69
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$319,168
Expenses
$244,526
Assets
$90,811
Liabilities
$0

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

4 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Michelle Lutter (Executive Director)

People named in this filing

  • Mark Dorsten (Director)
  • Michelle Lutter (Executive Director)
  • Richard McGough (Treasurer)

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 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Inform and prepare the public for the major global changes that will dominate our lives throughout the next decade.

What it reported doing in 2025

Online public programs: The Arlington Institute produces a number of communications programs designed to help inform and educate interested members of the public about the big changes transpiring in the world today. FuturEdition, our semi-monthly newsletter has been published for over 30 years and reaches an extended audience of about 20,000 readers. Quartet is an online discussion program featuring four panelists that fortnightly reaches about 10,000 people. What's Up features John Petersen and Gregg Braden fortnightly in unstructured conversation about trends currently in play and the future directions they may suggest. PostScripts is John Petersen's video blog which is generated 3-4 times per month. Each of these offerings reach about 10,000 people. These programs were paused in the fall 2025 after the Founder and President's death.

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.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - 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 program spending has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 68
  • Transparency & Controls: 86
  • Accountability: 50
  • Sustainability: 58
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 69.2%; rating input score 69
  • Program expense ratio: 90.3%; rating input score 90
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 20th 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: 75%; rating input score 75; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 1 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 14
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • 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: 23.4%; rating input score 75; 75th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.37; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -1.2% per year; rating input score 0; 24th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 12.8% per year; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 87% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 69.2% of revenue deployed · 90.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 3 of 4 board members independent · 1 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $221K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 4 people listed
  • Consistency: 41 of 42 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 6 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 20/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.