The Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
132571063
IRS 990 coverage
2009–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
New York, NY, USA
Phone
2122299200
Rating
78
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Standard
Sector
Arts, Culture, and Humanities

Reported finances

Revenue
$4,005,028
Expenses
$3,707,339
Assets
$2,261,978
Liabilities
$1,228,844

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

Leadership & pay

22 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • LARUE ALLEN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
  • INGER K WITTER (PRESIDENT)
  • SIMONA FERRARA (DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • LARUE ALLEN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $208,317 total reported compensation
  • JANET EILBER (ARTISTIC DIRECTOR): $190,500 total reported compensation
  • SIMONA FERRARA (DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $120,323 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Dedicated to preserving martha graham's legacy and performing her work with excellence, creating and presenting new dance works, supporting the non-profit dance field through rehearsal and production support, encouraging young artists and choreographers, and maintaining the graham archive. These activities include operation of school, production of digital and live performances, touring, and resource development for martha graham.

What it reported doing in 2024

The martha graham center of contemporary dance provides the martha graham school, martha graham dance company, and martha graham resources with fundraising and marketing support and legal, financial and audit services. The martha graham dance company keeps vital and builds upon martha graham's transcendent dance language by performing her work, commissioning new works, reviving and reconstructing the graham works, developing dancers in graham artistry and bringing new audiences throughout the global community to the graham art form. Martha graham resources restores and preserves the graham archives, documents ongoing artistic work and provides access to the resources of the center. New partnerships are developed with educational program services, and art institutions. The collections held by the organization are used in the presentation and performance of martha graham's works. The martha graham center supports aligned arts organizations with rehearsal, performance, and exhibition assistance.

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

SUPPORTED - 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 program spending has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 77
  • Transparency & Controls: 85
  • Accountability: 89
  • Sustainability: 37
  • Growth: 40

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 80.3%; rating input score 80
  • Program expense ratio: 86.5%; rating input score 86
  • Fundraising efficiency: $9.32 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 89.5%; rating input score 89; 20th 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: 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: 7.4%; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.61; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.54; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 17.2%; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -1.3% per year; rating input score 0; 10th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 1% per year; rating input score 100; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -0.9% per year; rating input score 0; 10th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 80.3% of revenue deployed · 86.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 17 of 19 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $3.2M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $208K · 22 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 34 of 34 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, executive pay, and related organizations
  • Filing history: 16 filing years from 2009 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 4 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.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 35/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 22/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 57/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 15/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 19/100.