ViBe District Virginia Beach

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
471131974
IRS 990 coverage
2018–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2017, Form 990-N 2016
Location
Virginia Beach, VA, USA
Phone
7572029533
Rating
80
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Urban, Community Economic Development

Reported finances

Revenue
$458,198
Expenses
$454,854
Assets
$210,888
Liabilities
$97,000

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

29 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Katherine E Pittman (Executive Director)
  • Andrew S Fine (Past President)
  • Laura B Wood (President)
  • Jody Wagner (Vice President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Katherine E Pittman (Executive Director): $89,808 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Our Mission: to promote, support, connect, and inspire the creative industries to boost our local economy, grow jobs, and enhance our quality of life

What it reported doing in 2025

Public Art Projects - ViBe Mural Festival, VB Street Art Festival, Sidewalk Mini Murals, Large-scale Wall Murals, Creative Crosswalks, temporary Fence Murals and other artist lead activities occur throughout the year within the district. Since 2018 the nonprofit has hosted the annual Mural Festival to add 10 Murals in 10 Days to exterior building walls around the district. This continues to be the organizationss largest event, now celebrating seven years. ViBe Creative District began painting creative crosswalks in 2016. This program also continues to this day completing six in 2024. In 2025, ViBe partnered with Virginia Beach Schools to paint a parking lot with seventeen works of art by local students. Working with local artists and the City of Virginia Beach, locations for the creative crosswalks are determined within the Arts District boundaries. Open calls to artists for designs take place in advance of free and open to the public painting events where the chosen artists lead the public in creation of artwork on the street Temporary Fence Murals line over 500 linear feet within the ViBes 18th Street Parklet, as well as the new Mediteranean Ave Parklet & Butterfly Garden. When completed the project will feature 100 plywood murals that will rotate on a 1-2 year basis to afford opportunities for local students and artists to create new work Artists-led activities from mosaic planters to nature walks offer exciting ways for the public to meet working artists and engage in the creative process. In 2025, the ViBe nonprofit added ten murals through the Mural Festival and fifteen new neighborhood identifier murals with the the VB Street Art Festival. Sculptures lining the streets of the district.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
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: 83
  • Transparency & Controls: 85
  • Accountability: 77
  • Sustainability: 27
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 85.9%; rating input score 86
  • Program expense ratio: 86.5%; rating input score 87
  • Fundraising efficiency: $19.02 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 15th 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: 96.4%; rating input score 96; 28th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • 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: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 0.7%; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.46; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.46; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 19.7%; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 16.8% per year; rating input score 100; 79th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 14% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 10.7% per year; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 85.9% of revenue deployed · 86.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 27 of 28 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $394K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $90K · 29 people listed
  • Consistency: 20 of 21 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 8 filing years from 2018 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 54/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 37/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 23/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 9/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 18/100.