The Norman B Leventhal Map & Education Center Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
260887197
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Boston, MA, USA
Phone
6178592506
Rating
74
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Libraries

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,826,938
Expenses
$1,341,755
Assets
$5,389,479
Liabilities
$242,855

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

Leadership & pay

25 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Garrett Nelson (President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Garrett Nelson (President): $195,375 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 Norman B. Leventhal Map and Education Center at the Boston Public Library shall inspire curiosity and learning, and foster geographic perspectives on the relationships between people and places, through free and accessible collections and resources, critical interpretation and research, and K-12 public education.

What it reported doing in 2024

Collections: The Center stewards the cartographic collections of the Boston Public Library, encompassing a quarter million maps and other objects, ensuring the preservation, cataloging, organization and digitization of the collection. Areas of particular strength are our four "Collections of Distinction": Boston & New England, the American Revolutionary era, urban maps and maritime maps. Public access is a major part of our mission and we offer reference services for the collection including assistance in geographic information services (GIS) and support fellowships to carry out research in the collection to develop new scholarship.The Center also has an extensive digital resources available on our website for public and educational use, increasing access to our collections and educational materials. Our digital collection includes 12,000 digitized maps including our American Revolutionary War era cross-institutional collection of more than 2,000 digitized maps from partner institutions such as the British Library and Library of Congress. Many digitized maps have been georeferenced, enabling overlays of modern maps, and some are also mosaicked and tiled to enhance digital access. This includes maps from our urban atlas collection, which can be explored as overlays of different maps over time using our mobile app/web tool Atlascope. In addition, all past and current exhibitions are available in digital form on our website. Digitized material from our collections has been used in numerous web and print publications and digital humanities projects.

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.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of total spending goes to programs and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and program spending has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 64
  • Transparency & Controls: 74
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 71
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 56.6%; rating input score 57
  • Program expense ratio: 71.4%; rating input score 71
  • Fundraising efficiency: $56.3 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • 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: 8 of 8 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: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 26.6%; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.02; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 14.6%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -2.5% per year; rating input score 0; 11th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 2.4% per year; rating input score 100; 27th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 15.8% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 56.6% of revenue deployed · 71.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 24 of 24 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $958K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $195K · 25 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 30 of 30 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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: Mission deployment rate scored 57/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 24/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 53/100.