The Inheiritance Project Ltd
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 320592479
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2021–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2020
- Location
- New York, NY, USA
- Phone
- 3476452789
- Rating
- 74
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Theater
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $466,527
- Expenses
- $458,539
- Assets
- $163,371
- Liabilities
- $84,026
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- Jonathan Ross (Executive Dir.): $74,750 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The In[HEIR]itance Project creates space for communities to navigate challenging civic conversations through collaborative theater projects inspired by inherited texts, traditions, cultures, customs, and beliefs.
What it reported doing in 2024
The Inheritance Theater Project is a national arts organization that works with intersectional, intergenerational, and interfaith communities to build relationships across societal divides through collaborative theater projects inspired by shared cultural touchstones. Since its founding in 2015, the company has employed over 240 artists to engage over 12,000 people in 17 cities in the creation of original theater pieces. In FY 2024, we undertook four major projects. They are described below: Juneteenth Seder: Los AngelesIn LA, we completed our sixth project in our Exodus in America Series. Working with over two dozen community partners including the Skirball Center, the Motion Picture Television Fund, the CAA Foundation, KIPP Philosphers Academy in Watts, the Black Jewish Entertainment Alliance, LA Jewish Federation, LAUSD, Grand Arts High School, and the LA Board of Supervisors, we engaged over a 1500 Angelenos to create and perform an original community-devised performance/eating experience called Guess Whos Coming to the Juneteenth Seder.Water Series: HobokenHoboken floods. Often. And the impact of that flooding is disproportionally felt in lower income areas of the city. Our artist team began a project in the fall of 2024 to navigating the tensions around this issue, working with the City of Hoboken Depts of Constituency Services and Cultural Affairs, Fund for a Better Waterfront, Mile Square Theater, Hoboken High School, All Saints Episcopal Parish, and other community partners. The final performance will premiere in early summer 2025.Civic Series: ChicagoIn a project funded, in part, by a new grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, our team began working with siloed communities on the South and West Sides of Chicago to explore the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the relationship these communities have to each other and to the freedoms guaranteed by that sacred civic text. Were partnering with some incredible local organizations including the Mikva Challenge, the Simple Good, First Presbyterian Church, the Civic Actors Studio at the University of Chicago, Congregation Rodfei Zedek, and the Free Street Theater for a devised theater project that will culminate in September of 2025.NYC Salon SeriesThroughout 2024, thanks to a Signature Grant from the Covenant Foundation, ITP has been incubating our model of engaging with religion, tradition, and text through a tremendously exciting series of salons in NYC engaging Black, Jewish, and Black-Jewish artists, clergy and civic leaders. These salons have taken place in private homes, a soul food restaurant, an art gallery, and at St James Presbyterian Church in Harlem. We know our model has the potential for maturation, and we are iterating and honing our methodology with an eye towards implementation and training for artists and educators nationwide.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 94% 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
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 fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 68
- Transparency & Controls: 86
- Accountability: 74
- Sustainability: 30
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 70%; rating input score 70
- Program expense ratio: 71.2%; rating input score 71
- Fundraising efficiency: $12.81 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 19th 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- 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: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 1.7%; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.36; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.51; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 16.3%; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 6.4% per year; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 15.4% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 7.6% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 70% of revenue deployed · 71.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 3 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $327K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $75K · 11 people listed
- Consistency: 25 of 25 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2021 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.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 8 not reported.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 46/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 43/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 18/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 11/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 23/100.