Tucson Festival of Books
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 262145432
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Tucson, AZ, USA
- Phone
- 5206210302
- Rating
- 85
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Printing, Publishing
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,489,666
- Expenses
- $1,300,691
- Assets
- $1,065,012
- Liabilities
- $227,579
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
13 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- ABRA MCANDREW (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AS OF AUGUST 2024)
- JOHN M HUMENIK (CHAIR OF BOARD AND VICE PRESIDENT)
- WILLIAM VINER (PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- ABRA MCANDREW (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AS OF AUGUST 2024): $35,504 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 tucson festival of books is a premier, free-to-attend, family-friendly celebration of literature that engages our community. We present notable recently published authors from all genres to discuss big ideas and express creativity freely.
What it reported doing in 2024
The tucson festival of books is a community-wide celebration of literature. Activities include author panels and workshops on literary and book-centered topics. The festival features hundreds of local and national exhibitors with literacy-focused booths and activities. Attendees can meet and interact with authors, purchase books and book-themed merch and learn about local nonprofits. The festival is sponsored by numerous philanthropies and corporate partnerships and free to the public. The 2025 festival reached an estimated attendance of 130,000 people with presentations from 350 authors, including 86 presentations geared toward children, parents and educators. Over 200 exhibitors offered books and literacy-related education and products to the community and 5,000 books were given away to children.
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 87% 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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 81
- Transparency & Controls: 94
- Accountability: 84
- Sustainability: 52
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 78.3%; rating input score 78
- Program expense ratio: 89.3%; rating input score 89
- Fundraising efficiency: $39.25 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 12.7%; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.82; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.21; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 2.7%; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 3.7% per year; rating input score 100; 35th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 4.4% per year; rating input score 100; 40th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 9.4% per year; rating input score 100; 57th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 78.3% of revenue deployed · 89.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $1.2M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $36K · 13 people listed
- Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $166K reported
- Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 4 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 3 filed related-organization links
- 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 36/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 30/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 57/100.