Yerkes Future Foundation
Legal name: Yerkes Future Foundation Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 830802129
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Jul 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2019, Form 990-N 2018
- Location
- Williams Bay, WI, USA
- Phone
- 262-245-5555
- Rating
- 75
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- University or Technological Institute
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $4,427,319
- Expenses
- $2,936,571
- Assets
- $15,723,931
- Liabilities
- $146,553
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
19 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- DENNIS KOIS (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- DENNIS KOIS (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $243,870 total reported compensation
- AMANDA BAUER (KEY EMPLOYEE): $229,439 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Reawakening, restoring, and reimagining our beloved observatory.
What it reported doing in 2024
Yerkes observatory advances humankind's understanding of the universe and our place within it, igniting curiosity, facilitating exploration and nurturing a deep sense of connection with our planet and each other. We doubled the opportunities for k-12 classrooms to visit the observatory & held our first educator professional development sessions. We started the exploring the night sky tours which allows members of the public to observe through the world's largest refracting telescope and we held four open house events that all sold out, with our largest one during the april 2024 solar eclipse.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 83% 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 54
- Transparency & Controls: 84
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 77
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 48.8%; rating input score 49
- Program expense ratio: 69.1%; rating input score 69
- Fundraising efficiency: $8.86 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Pass
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Pass
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- 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 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 33.7%; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 5.35; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 16.1%; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 43.8% per year; rating input score 100; 96th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 4.7% per year; rating input score 100; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 27.7% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 7 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 48.8% of revenue deployed · 69.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 15 of 15 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $2M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $244K · 19 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $112K reported
- Consistency: 34 of 34 current checks pass
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 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: Mission deployment rate scored 49/100.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 34/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 17/100.