Vermont Humanities Council
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 510187809
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2015–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Montpelier, VT, USA
- Phone
- 8022622626
- Rating
- 72
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,833,885
- Expenses
- $1,922,074
- Assets
- $3,219,605
- Liabilities
- $64,895
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
18 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- CHRISTOPHER KAUFMAN ILSTRUP (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- CHRISTOPHER KAUFMAN ILSTRUP (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $157,706 total reported compensation
- LUIS VIVANCO (DIRECTOR): $350 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Using the humanities, we connect with people across Vermont to create just, vibrant, and resilient communities, and to inspire a lifelong love of learning.
What it reported doing in 2025
Humanities based literacy programs - variety of programs to promote literacy in Vermont. Programs include "Vermont reads" a one book annual statewide reading, early literacy workshops for childcare providers, as well as family literacy trainings for parents. Humanitiescamps are weeklong summer day camps that aim to strengthen literacy skills and build positive peer groups and a love of reading. "connections" works on literacy with persons in and emerging from the correctional system.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 67% for direct work, and 33% for grants.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and most voting board members are independent. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and the filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 70
- Transparency & Controls: 56
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 37
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 76.6%; rating input score 77
- Program expense ratio: 72.2%; rating input score 72
- Fundraising efficiency: $7.71 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Missing
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 36.3%; rating input score 36; 31st 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; 64th 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: -4.8%; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.68; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 8.2%; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 6% per year; rating input score 100; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 4.9% per year; rating input score 100; 37th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 4.8% per year; rating input score 100; 35th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 76.6% of revenue deployed · 72.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 17 of 17 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $1.4M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $158K · 18 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 29 of 30 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 10 filing years from 2015 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 21 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 19 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.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 36/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 27/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 19/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 59/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 42/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 53/100.