The House Foundation for the Arts Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 132869113
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2012–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- New York, NY, USA
- Phone
- 2129041330
- Rating
- 85
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Management & Technical Assistance
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $736,591
- Expenses
- $941,897
- Assets
- $641,932
- Liabilities
- $120,345
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
12 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- SARAH LERNER (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
- SEVERN TAYLOR (PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- SARAH LERNER (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $111,629 total reported compensation
- MEREDITH MONK (ARTISTIC DIRECTOR): $93,365 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Founded in 1971, the house foundation for the arts, inc. (the house) is a nonprofit performing arts and culture organization with a mission to promote, disseminate and celebrate the work of the iconic american artist meredith monk. For the past 46 years, the house has served as a vehicle to share monks work with the world. The house provides development, management, production and administrative services for monk and meredith monk & vocal ensemble. The houses core programming includes live performances, film screenings, artist talks, educational programs for young people and workshops for professional artists. The house is committed to building a legacy for monk and to sharing her prolific body of work with future generations of artists, scholars and the public.
What it reported doing in 2024
In fiscal year 2025, The House Foundation for the Arts, Inc. celebrated Merediths 60th Performance Season and her artistic legacy NYC. Programmatic accomplishments include a sold-out, 10-performance run of Indras Net at the Park Avenue Armory. Performances of Meredith Monk with Katie Geissinger and Allison Sniffin in Concert were done in Houston, Texas and Claremont, CA. Performances of Duet Behavior with Meredith Monk and John Hollenbeck were done at Mass MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts, and in Lisbon, Porto and Budapest. Meredith was Artist in Residence at the Kaufman School of Music and Juilliard. In addition, The House Foundation offered a fall online workshop series and a Summer 2024/Spring 2025 in-person workshop Series led by current and past members of Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble to interested participants around the world.
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
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 expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 86
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 85
- Sustainability: 17
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 83.5%; rating input score 84
- Fundraising efficiency: $6.77 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 81.8%; rating input score 82; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- 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: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -27.9%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.68; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.19; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 21.8%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 2.4% per year; rating input score 100; 28th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 1.9% per year; rating input score 100; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 17.9% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 83.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 9 of 11 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $787K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $112K · 12 people listed
- Consistency: 33 of 33 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 13 filing years from 2012 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 26/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 6/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 31/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Audit committee oversight not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 13/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 33/100.