Whitneyville Cultural Commons Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 475322239
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2017–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2016
- Location
- Hamden, CT, USA
- Phone
- 2037808890
- Rating
- 80
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $411,421
- Expenses
- $294,010
- Assets
- $1,162,645
- Liabilities
- $890,761
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
7 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Rebecca Mandell (President and Member of the Board of Directors)
- Brendan Smith (Vice President and Member of the Board of Directors)
People named in this filing
- Rebecca Mandell (President and Member of the Board of Directors)
- Andrew Marchant-Shapiro (Secretary and Member of the Board of Directors)
- Addys Castillo (Member of the Board of Directors)
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
Our mission is to preserve and enhance places of communal and historic value by providing public spaces, tools, and knowledge as shared resources to support a thriving community - socially, culturally, and economically. We envision a future where every community has valuable resources preserved for perpetual public use, with just and equitable access to enhance the quality of life for all. We: Preserve Historic Places: Steward historic properties in our trust with a commitment to preserving buildings and natural environments as part of the cultural landscape of the site. Develop Social Capital: Nurture communal relationships as host to diverse civic forums, public and private social events, and spiritual and cultural traditions. Champion Artistic Creation: Cultivate, celebrate, and showcase artistic endeavors of all kinds. Stimulate Economic Opportunity: Develop local organizations and individuals through co-working opportunities and the provision of shared info, material, and service.
What it reported doing in 2024
Our Materials and Information Library program allows us to offer a curated repository of items and information for managed public use, both onsite and offsite. It includes books, tables, chairs, multi-media equipment, office supplies, kitchen tools, lawn care tools, and more. It also includes our databases of information about the historic property, Whitneyville, and Greater New Haven, allowing us to slowly build a representation of our community that can let us help people find services and resources that they need that we don't provide. We also document our successes and failures as a social enterprise nonprofit transforming communal, historic space from just its traditional uses to alternative, expanded, and inclusive uses that conserve and preserve the traditional uses and spirit of those uses, while also including new styles of use -- the documenting of this material has allowed us to grow partnerships with organizations around Connecticut where we help them adapt our successes to their own situations, avoid our failures in those situations, and assist them with implementing the adapted plans so their institutions and facilities can serve flourishing community. This year we provided information curation services around nonprofit formation and development to The People's Place of Waterbury, a nonprofit community resources center. Helping them find their first physical location for establishing the physical plant of their community resources center, and helped them launch programs like ours, as well as adapting them to serve their community in novel ways. We are also developing a shared library of documentation of this process, so that both organizations can continue to share with others the successes and failures of the social enterprises. We also provided information curation services around historic property adaptation to First Church of Christ Woodbridge, the sister church of our property, constructed by the same builders from the same plans in 1832. We assisted them with the adaptation of the historic day care operating in their Parish House, developing plans and strategies for expanding it from 32 to 96 children, and finding a daycare partner to help them operate it, such that their historic property can become accessible and sustainable into the future.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 90% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 98% 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 liabilities are high compared with assets.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 73
- Transparency & Controls: 89
- Accountability: 76
- Sustainability: 69
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 71.4%; rating input score 71
- Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 80th 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 3 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 43
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- 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: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 28.5%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.95; rating input score 75; 75th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.77; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 19.5% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 14.6% per year; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 9.5% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 71.4% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 3 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 6 filed program accomplishments · $294K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 7 people listed
- Consistency: 41 of 42 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 7 filing years from 2017 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
- 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 6 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 7/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.