The Louisiana Museum Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
720954712
IRS 990 coverage
2009–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
New Orleans, LA, USA
Phone
5045580493
Rating
92
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,696,816
Expenses
$2,473,858
Assets
$5,033,338
Liabilities
$106,776

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

26 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • BENJAMIN A DUPUY (President)
  • LLOYD N SONNY SHIELDS (Vice President)

Highest reported compensation

  • KRISTIN C SHANNON (Executive Dir.): $108,150 total reported compensation
  • TIM LUCAS (Finance Director): $43,692 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

To provide community, grants, programming, and marketing support for the chronically underfunded state-owned and operated Louisiana state museum (lsm) system, including the cabildo, presbytere, new orleans jazz museum at the old u.s. Mint, six other museum properties, and six major collections of nearly 500,000 artifacts, primarily for the system's three core service areas: exhibitions, collections, and education / public outreach. In providing financial support for the museums and collections of the lsm system, the lmf seeks, accepts, and provides managment, financial, grants, contracts, and other program support services. Lmf also provides exhibition concepts and guest curators and produces educational and public outreach programming in connection with the musuems and collections.

What it reported doing in 2024

Educational and public outreach support: funding and services provided by the lmf helped make possible the following educational and public outreach programing: for the cabildo: the lmf continues a creative aging series featuring senior adult beading and drumming workshops. For the new orleans jazz museum at the old u.s. Mint: (1) through grants and community donations, the lmf supported almost all of the museum's musical and public outreach programming, including the museum's balcony and courtyard concerts, annual jazz improvisations, gala, and nola riverfest. (2) the lmf helped administer funding support for the jazz international fund, which funded the new orleans jazz museum's mission to paris as part of their jazz international initiative promoting new orleans culture internationally through a broad range of global partnerships and cultural exchanges. (3) the lmf helped administer funding support for the mexican consulate program, which funded the new orleans jazz museum program celebration and discovery of the history of the mexican consulate and its profound impact on the cultural landscape of new orleans.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 81% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Grant intermediary. The nonprofit sent 82% of its reported program spending out as grants.
  • 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. Expenses are high relative to revenue and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 97
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 34
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 95.4%; rating input score 95
  • Fundraising efficiency: $92.75 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 94.1%; rating input score 94; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • 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: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -45.8%; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.03; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 6.1%; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 13% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 7.2% per year; rating input score 100; 55th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 5.6% per year; rating input score 100; 42nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 95.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 36 of 36 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $2.4M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $108K · 26 people listed
  • Consistency: 29 of 30 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 16 filing years from 2009 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • 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 — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 3/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 50/100.