The Corning Museum of Glass
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 160764349
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2014–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-T 2025
- Location
- Corning, NY, USA
- Phone
- 6074385275
- Rating
- 81
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $59,870,439
- Expenses
- $47,237,362
- Assets
- $118,141,606
- Liabilities
- $12,003,303
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
22 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- KAROL B WIGHT (PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE DI)
Highest reported compensation
- KAROL B WIGHT (PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE DI): $706,688 total reported compensation
- DAVID R TOGNI JR (CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER): $353,976 total reported compensation
- AMY J SCHWARTZ (DIRECTOR, THE STUDIO): $271,366 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To inspire people to see glass in a new light by engaging visitors and the community through the art, history, and science of glass; building, stewarding, and promoting the world's foremost collection of objects representing the art, history, and science of glass, and supporting the library of record on those subjects, for a broad range of current and new museum visitors, artists, and researchers; display the glass and library collections in permanent exhibitions and arrange temporary exhibitions that draw attention to particular aspects of the art and history of glass; present permanent exhibitions of glass science and technology that educate and engage visitors of all ages in the stories of historic innovations and future applications of glass and glass-related materials; provide unique opportunities to view glass artists creating new works, as well as offer opportunities for visitors to experience glassmaking firsthand through creative engagements in the studio.
What it reported doing in 2025
Studio, education and outreach - the museum educates people of all agesin a diversity of topics about glass. Our glassmaking school, the studio, provides classes, residencies, live online programming and scholarships and residencies to artists and scholars around the world. In 2025, the museum hosted 1,875 students, instructors, and teaching assistants in a variety of classes and supported artists through sixteen residencies. On a daily basis, the museum provides a variety of glassmaking demonstrations for our visitors, which enables them to observe and learn about the art, science, technology and properties of glass. The museum expands this learning by providing hot glass outreach programs whereby we take our staff artists and mobile glassmaking demonstration equipment into a variety of venues. The museum also provides programs enabling our visitors to participate in a variety of unique hands-on glassmaking experiences. In 2025, 29% of our individual and family visitors engaged in one of these glassmaking experiences. Our education department plays an important role in providing programs for all guests, as well as students in our local school systems. In 2025, the museum hosted 8,166 school children on field trips to the museum, developed programs for school breaks (winter and spring), supported the jr. Curators and cmog challenge programs, and hosted six educational performaces for pre-k audiences.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 77% 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
STRONG - 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 total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 78
- Transparency & Controls: 75
- Accountability: 96
- Sustainability: 69
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 79.7%; rating input score 80
- Program expense ratio: 85.1%; rating input score 85
- Fundraising efficiency: $23.92 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th 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: 1 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 12
- Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
- Requires narrative reports: Limited
- Conducts field audits: Limited
- May suspend future funding: Limited
- Requires financial reports: Limited
- Conducts site visits: Limited
- Requires grant agreements: Limited
- May require repayment: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 26th 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: 21.1%; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.5; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.1; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 4.6%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 1.9% per year; rating input score 100; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 1.5% per year; rating input score 100; 10th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 7.7% per year; rating input score 100; 55th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 79.7% of revenue deployed · 85.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 14 of 15 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $40.2M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $707K · 22 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 4 contractors listed · $1.7M reported
- Consistency: 39 of 39 current checks pass
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 11 filing years from 2014 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 7 filed money-flow records
- 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 51/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 59/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 24/100.