The Thirteen

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
463738034
IRS 990 coverage
2019–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Washington, DC, USA
Phone
2029907679
Rating
80
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$662,777
Expenses
$609,701
Assets
$368,734
Liabilities
$15,724

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

Leadership & pay

11 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • Matthew Robertson (Artistic Director): $67,425 total reported compensation
  • Angela Marroy Boerger (Managing Director): $60,578 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 Thirteen is a professional choir and orchestra with a mission to inspire the soul to sing, move the heart to empathy, and build community, all through groundbreaking musical performance: through concerts, workshops, education outreach, recordings, and music commissions.

What it reported doing in 2024

Concerts & Workshops: The Thirteen's 2024-25 Season presented five choral programs for nearly 3000 audience members in 14 concerts. We also organized 6 workshops for students reaching 167 participants. Besides performing live in DC, Virginia, and Maryland, we offered online access to our performances to a growing worldwide audience. October featured Bach's Complete Motets, featuring choir, soloists, and Baroque orchestra. The December program, Handel's Messiah, also featured choir, soloists, and Baroque orchestra. In February we performed a program titled To the Field of Stars, featuring David Lang's Little Match Girl Passion paired with Gabriel Jackson's To the Field of Stars, accompanied by immersive projection designs by Camilla Tassi. March's program featured J.S. Bach's Early Masses, accompanied by Baroque orchestra. Our season culminated in May with a program titled The New American Songbook, which included works by contemporary American composers and a world premiere commission by composer Juhi Bansal. The May program included our 2025 class of Vocal Fellows who performed side by side with our rostered artists.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 67% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 99% 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

STRONG - 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 some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 73
  • Transparency & Controls: 86
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 43
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 74.3%; rating input score 74
  • Program expense ratio: 80.2%; rating input score 80
  • Fundraising efficiency: $13.48 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 16th 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: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • 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: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 8%; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.6; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 21%; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 20.1% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 17.6% per year; rating input score 100; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 23.5% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 74.3% of revenue deployed · 80.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $489K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $67K · 11 people listed
  • Consistency: 28 of 29 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2019 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 47/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 28/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 57/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 14/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 54/100.