The Clifton House
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 842681779
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2024–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2023
- Location
- Baltimore, MD, USA
- Phone
- 3105929722
- Rating
- 67
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Arts Service Organizations and Activities
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $305,924
- Expenses
- $322,531
- Assets
- $214,801
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
7 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Sidney Clifton (President)
People named in this filing
- Sidney Clifton (President)
- Vell Lyles (advisor)
- Ali Michael Cannon (advisor)
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
The Clifton House's mission is to continue the legacy of acclaimed poet Lucille Clifton and community activist Fred Clifton by providing mentorship, local and global resource access, training, and development in the creative arts to underrepresented and underserved people of all ages in the Baltimore and surrounding communities, with particular focus on Afrodiasporic, female, and gender non-conforming LGBTQA+ poets, writers, artists, and creative activists.
What it reported doing in 2025
In 2025, The Clifton House continued to expand its impact as one of Baltimore's premier literary and interdisciplinary arts organizations, welcoming hundreds of visitors through a robust calendar of public programs, workshops, screenings, lectures, performances, and community gatherings. Throughout the year, the organization presented dozens of events that celebrated the enduring legacy of Lucille and Fred Clifton while creating meaningful opportunities for artists, writers, scholars, filmmakers, and audiences to engage in dialogue, creative practice, and cultural exchange. Signature initiativesincluding the First Films screening series, poetry workshops, artist conversations, BEAMS youth programming, literary readings, and multidisciplinary performancesregularly attracted audiences from across Baltimore and beyond, fostering intergenerational participation and expanding access to high-quality arts experiences.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- 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. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 80
- Transparency & Controls: 90
- Accountability: 6
- Sustainability: 38
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 92.3%; rating input score 92
- Program expense ratio: 87.5%; rating input score 88
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
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: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 0%; rating input score 0; 8th 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: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Fail
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -5.4%; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.67; rating input score 31; 31st 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: 12.5% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 59.4% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 15.8% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 92.3% of revenue deployed · 87.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 0 of 7 board members independent · 1 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $282K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 7 people listed
- Consistency: 18 of 18 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 2 filing years from 2024 to 2025
- 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.
- High — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 0/100.
- High — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 6 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 25/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 31/100.