Local Philanthropic

CUMMER MUSEUM FOUNDATION
Using data as of: September 2016

Rating: RECOMMEND

About
The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens largest fine arts museum in North Florida and their gardens are on the National Register of Historic Places. The museum and gardens attract 130,000 visitors annually.

The museum has nearly 5,000 permanent objects, with some dating back to 2100 BC, plus many more on loan from other collections. They have a very large collection of European and American paintings. The Cummer also has an education center that provides interactive installations to educate visitors on the collections.

More information on the Cummer Museum can be found here:
www.cummermuseum.org/

The Cummer Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/TheCummerMuseum/


Our Analysis

The Cummer had $5.5 million in revenue according to their latest report. This is a decline from the $9 million in revenue they had the previous year, but contributions to the Cummer grew by $900,000. The decline in revenue is due to an unusually large contribution from their investments the previous year.


Of the $5.5 million in revenue, $3.1 million came in the form of contributions and $500 thousand came from government grants.


Museums are a different type of nonprofit that cannot be analyzed like traditional ones. Normally, we like to see charities spend at least 75% on their mission, but museums have much larger levels of overhead due to their exhibitions, insurance, maintenance, etc. This applies to the Cummer Museum. Though they spend just under 60% on their mission, this does not mean they are inefficient with their spending. Their spending levels are well within the average.

Program Spending
Operation & Maint. of Art and Gardens 1,447,872
Operation & Maint. of Art Education Center 1,402,566
TOTAL 2,850,438


Spending on mission
2,850,438 ÷ 4,800,748 = 59.4%

Spending on administrative costs
1,474,188 ÷ 4,800,748 = 30.7%

Spending on fundraising
476,122 ÷ 4,800,748 = 9.9%


Our Conclusion
Museums cannot be evaluated the same as a traditional nonprofit and normal spending ratios cannot be applied here. We believe they do a good job and your donation helps a worthy program. We give them a RECOMMEND rating.

They also have many volunteer opportunities available, which can be found here:
http://www.cummermuseum.org/volunteer


Contact:
Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens
829 Riverside Avenue
Jacksonville, Florida 32204
(904) 356-6857


Form 990: LINK


Financial information comes from the latest Form 990 filing. This review is the opinion of Local Philanthropic and is provided for general information purposes only. Please conduct your own due diligence before donating to any nonprofit.