Turrell Art Foundation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 262635896
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2013–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Flagstaff, AZ, USA
- Phone
- 9173994796
- Rating
- 85
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Standard
- Sector
- Visual Arts Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,650,096
- Expenses
- $3,344,103
- Assets
- $107,156,714
- Liabilities
- $190,171
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Michael Govan (Vice President)
- James A Turrell (President)
People named in this filing
- Michael Govan (Vice President)
- James A Turrell (President)
- Kyung-Lim Lee Turrell (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 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To support the realization and stewardship of the Roden Crater project, including the protection and conservation of surrounding lands, dark skies, and viewshed, as well as own a significant portion of James Turrells art work and serve as a repository to hold, preserve, and manage all of his archives.
What it reported doing in 2024
To Support the realization and stewardship of the Roden Crater project, including the protection and conservation of surrounding lands, dark skies, and viewshed. Roden Crater, which sits within the boundaries of the Painted Desert approximately 20 miles northeast of Flagstaff AZ, is a monumental land art project by artist James Turrell. The crater, which is a cinder cone type of volcanic cone from an extinct volcano, has been transformed into a massive naked-eye observatory for viewing and experiencing skylight, solar, and celestial phenomena. The project is still in progress with hopes to open for public viewing tentatively set for 2030.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Investment-supported. 89% of the money available for current operations came from recurring investment income.
- 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
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 fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 87
- Transparency & Controls: 93
- Accountability: 76
- Sustainability: 48
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 82.1%; rating input score 82
- Fundraising efficiency: $8.75 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 34; 34th 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: 3 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 43
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- 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: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -102.7%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 32.04; rating input score 98; 98th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 34.2% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 10.3% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 24.7% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 82.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 3 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $2.7M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
- Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $7.6M reported
- Consistency: 23 of 24 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 12 filing years from 2013 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- 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.
- 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.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 7 not reported.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 34/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 1/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Schedule R controlled transactions itemized did not reconcile in the filed values.