Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
132936291
IRS 990 coverage
2014–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
New York, NY, USA
Phone
2123192787
Rating
79
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Arts Service Organizations and Activities

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,624,073
Expenses
$1,499,413
Assets
$3,147,628
Liabilities
$691,820

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

Leadership & pay

37 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • KATHRYN E WAGNER ESQ (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • KATHRYN E WAGNER ESQ (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $298,933 total reported compensation
  • AMY A LEHMAN ESQ (DIRECTOR OF LEGAL SERVICES): $213,432 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Vla's mission is to provide access to dedicated legal representation and education to individual artists and arts and cultural organizations (acos). Focusing on New York state and the New York metropolitan area, vla strives to protect the livelihoods, businesses, and creative works of the artistic community. To achieve these goals, vla provides pro bono legal representation to low-income individual artists and acos. Vla also offers educational programming and a range of other services such as legal counseling, advocacy, alternative dispute resolution, and training of lawyers in arts and entertainment law.

What it reported doing in 2024

Education: vla educates individual artists, arts professionals within acos, attorneys, students, and the general public about legal and business issues that affect artists and their creative endeavors. Classes are often an artist's first exposure to vla. They play a fundamental role in helping artists and acos identify important legal and business issues they face, and teach them how to protect themselves and their artistic endeavors.vla's education programs are also a vital resource for the arts community and the lawyers who serve it. In fy25, vla served 1,435 artists, arts organizations, attorneys, and law students through classes, seminars, panel discussions, and workshops for the arts and legal communities. Vla's education programming also includes internships for law school students, participation in preparing materials for legal publications, and volunteer attorney training programs.vla's highly successful core classes include copyright for artists, contract essentials for artists, for profit incorporation, and nonprofit incorporation and tax-exempt status. Vla also offers classes that address specific legal issues related to different creative disciplines such as choreography, contemporary art, dance, fashion, filmmaking, music, photography, and theater. Vla's course catalog continues to evolve as new legal issues emerge, with new class offerings on generative ai, social media, and other in-demand topics added in the last two years.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 73% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
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

SUPPORTED - 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 expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 74
  • Transparency & Controls: 74
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 50
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 76.7%; rating input score 77
  • Program expense ratio: 82.3%; rating input score 82
  • Fundraising efficiency: $9.1 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • 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: 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: 7.7%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.1; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.22; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 34.2%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 5.3% per year; rating input score 100; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 6.2% per year; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 12.5% per year; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 76.7% of revenue deployed · 82.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 31 of 31 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $1.2M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $299K · 37 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 31 of 31 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 11 filing years from 2014 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 35/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 56/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 5/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 30/100.