The Phelps Mansion Museum
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 208438618
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Binghamton, NY, USA
- Phone
- 6077224873
- Rating
- 75
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- History Museums
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $376,401
- Expenses
- $330,324
- Assets
- $1,515,457
- Liabilities
- $9,859
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
People named in this filing
- DR CHELSEA GIBSON (BOARD CHAIR)
- JOHN CHAFFEE (VICE CHAIR)
- ZACH STAFF (TREASURER)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The phelps mansion museum will utilize and preserve its unique victorian facility and collections to serve the publice through regular tours, exhibits and programs emphasizing local history, education, literature, art and music.
What it reported doing in 2025
The organization's collections consist of antique furniture and fixtures displayed in the phelps mansion museum (a historical house museum) which functions as an educational museum. There is a small collections of clothing from the victorian and edwardian periods, and a collection of woodworking tools of a cabinet maker who worked on building the mansion in the early 1870's (donated by the family to the museum). The museum has had exhibits of this part of our collections. Additional exhibits of other parts of our collections are in the planning stages.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 65% 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.
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 assets have declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 68
- Transparency & Controls: 86
- Accountability: 76
- Sustainability: 64
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 73%; rating input score 73
- Program expense ratio: 81.3%; rating input score 81
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 24th 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 3 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 43
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 12.2%; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.59; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 6.3% per year; rating input score 100; 56th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 2.9% per year; rating input score 100; 35th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -2% per year; rating input score 0; 16th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 73% of revenue deployed · 81.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 3 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $269K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 25 of 26 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 16 filing years from 2010 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- 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: 4 of 7 not reported.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 42/100.