During the Minnesota Orchestra lockout, one of Adaptistration’s most popular articles related to that topic was when I made more than a decade of the organization’s IRS returns available for download in one handy pdf file.
Typically, that info is secured under digital lock and key in my consulting resource vault but I’m already witnessing a good bit of not-so-healthy arm chair analysis based on incomplete or limited data so it is time again to dig deep and offer up the goods.
In this case, the financial document goodie bag contains fourteen (14) seasons worth of IRS 990s from the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC), the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s (ASO) parent organization; everything from the 1998-99 season through the most recently available filing from the 2011-12 season.
A Little Experiment On Motivation & Social Sharing
When the Minnesota documents were made available, they could only be accessed via a social share wall; meaning, you had to post a link to the article on your Facebook or Twitter account before you could access the download. This time around, I’m not going to place the file behind the share-wall and instead opt for an honor system that asks each person who downloads or shares a copy with friends or colleagues also takes the time to post a link to this post via your social networks.
Since the numbers of downloads and social shares for both efforts can be measured, I’m very curious to see which method produces the best download to share ratio. In short, is it better to require social action to access special data or will the honor system prevail?
[ilink url=”https://adaptistration.com/wp-content/uploads/Atlanta-Symphony-Robert-W-Woodruff-Arts-Center-Inc-1998-1999-through-2011-2012-IRS-990.zip?utm_source=ASO%20990&utm_medium=adaptistration&utm_campaign=ASO%20990%20download” style=”download”]Download the 41MB zip file and when you do, please use one of the social sharing links below.[/ilink]
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Thank you for doing this, Drew!
My pleasure and you are very welcome.
I see quite a bit floating around social media, traditional media article comments, etc.; otherwise, it isn’t my place to point any fingers. Instead, the more productive approach is to help contribute to providing a more comprehensive understanding via as much data as possible.
Thanks Drew. I am curious – as I looked at the recent documents, there were no highest paid employees listed. How do they get around this reporting? I saw trustees listed instead with $0 etc.
It depends a bit on which years you’re looking at as the forms have changed over that period of time but for the most recent years, look for Schedule J Part II.
Ok. Got it. Thanks for making these available and for your continued work on behalf of our art.
Thank you Drew. I downloaded what you have but I had already been looking at the 990’s. I have not seen a specific line entry for a salary for Mr. Hertz or Ms. Hepner. Can you help with that? Also, how many orchestras have two board of directors in place like WAC and ASO?
Nonprofit board members do not draw a salary so you won’t find anything along those lines and Ms. Hepner did not become President and CEO until 7/1/2012. As such, her compensation information may only be in the most recent 990 in the pack, however, you can contact the WAC directly and ask for a copy of their most recent 990, which should be available by this point even if it has not yet been processed by the IRS or made available third party providers such as Guidestar or Charity Navigator. If the copy has been submitted to the IRS, the organization may not deny you an inspection copy. You can read more about this process by downloading http://0041464.netsolhost.com/nonprofit/NonProfitPublicInspectionRules.pdf
Thanks for your response. I was shocked to learn that Ms. Hepner only makes around $176K (in 2011) but even more shocked to learn that Michael Shapiro, director of the High Museum, makes over $582K! Do you realize how many more musicians the orchestra could have with that kind of money!
Keep in mind that if that was from her first year of employment then the figure is likely an incomplete representation due to a partial year of employment.