Vsa Minnesota

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
363440452
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2017
Forms available
Form 990 2017
Location
Minnepolis, MN, USA
Phone
6123323888
Rating
77
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Arts Education

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$343,755
Expenses
$358,775
Assets
$269,173
Liabilities
$1,213

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2017. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

14 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • MAGGIE KARLI (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • CRAIG DUNN (EXECUTIVE DI): $65,832 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2017. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Vsa Minnesota, a member of the vsa affiliate network, a program of the john f. Kennedy center for the performing arts, is a statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to providing, promoting and creating quality art opportunities and avenues for people with disabilities in the areas of visual and media art, music, dance, theater, storytelling, and creative writing. The arts play an essential role in enriching lives and enhancing the learning skills, creativity, responsiveness, and social itneraction of persons with disabilities, as well as provide for the exchange of information and ideas.

What it reported doing in 2017

Cultural access and inclusive arts services vsa Minnesota serves as a resource to state arts organizations on disability awareness, the americans with disability act, and physical and programmatic access to arts venues and services, using on-site materials and community resources. The program again this year included the ada improvement grant program for metro arts organizations made possible by a grant from the metropolitan regional arts council (st. Paul). This program allowed vsa Minnesota to make grants to 16 organizations seeking to improve access to their programs by people with disabilities through physical or program improvements. The maximum grant amount was 15,000 and 199,600 was awarded in total. This program/service area also continues to include access to performing arts which is a long-standing program that provides technical assistance to arts organizations in the areas of american sign language interpretation, audio description and captioning for individuals who are deaf or blind who attend arts performances offering these accommodations. Technical assistance includes marketing to deaf/hard of hearing and blind/low vision communities and building performance organizations capabilities to meet the needs of audience members from these communities. Vsa Minnesota has a captioning display unit that it offers out to organizations wishing to provide open captioning for their live arts performances. The organizations accessible arts calendar promotes all performances in the state featuring asl interpretation, audio description and captioning. This calendar is found on the organizations website at www.vsamn.org/calendar.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 86% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 43% for direct work, and 57% for grants.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The required major-donor schedule is missing or incomplete and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 82
  • Transparency & Controls: 81
  • Accountability: 84
  • Sustainability: 34
  • Growth: 20

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 84.8%; rating input score 85
  • Program expense ratio: 81.2%; rating input score 81
  • Fundraising efficiency: $26.02 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 67; 67th 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; 79th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: No; rating input score 0
  • 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: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -4.4%; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.75; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 18.3%; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -6.3% per year; rating input score 0; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -7.4% per year; rating input score 0; 13th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 2.1% per year; rating input score 100; 44th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 84.8% of revenue deployed · 81.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 13 of 13 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $291K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $66K · 14 people listed
  • Consistency: 26 of 26 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 8 filing years from 2010 to 2017
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 14 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 13 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.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Major donor itemization scored 0/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 29/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 35/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 22/100.