Whitneyville Cultural Commons Inc
Public records show a registered, tax-exempt organization in good standing.
Points to look into
- It reported loans to or from officers, directors or other insiders.
These come from the organization's own tax return. There may be a good explanation; ask the charity.
What it says it does
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.
- Income
- $411,421
- Spending
- $294,010
- Spent on programs
- 100%
- Reserves
- -29.8 months of spending
- Largest source of income
- fees for its services, 90%
- Employees
- 5
- Volunteers
- 45
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Financial health
Weak: 47 out of 100.
Reserves
0 of 35Spendable reserves are negative: it owes or has committed more than it holds.
Debt
2 of 20It owes 77% of what it owns.
Living within its means
15 of 15Income exceeded spending by 29% of income.
Income trend
15 of 15Income rose 9% on the year before.
Spending floor
15 of 15100% of spending went to programs and raising each dollar of donations cost 0 cents.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Governance
Fair: 64 out of 100.
Independent board
25 of 257 of 7 voting board members are independent.
Conflict of interest policy
15 of 15Has a written conflict of interest policy.
Whistleblower policy
0 of 8Reports no written whistleblower policy.
Record keeping policy
0 of 7Reports no written policy on keeping and destroying records.
Board minutes
5 of 5Keeps minutes of board meetings.
Board sees the tax return
10 of 10Gave the board a copy of this return before filing it.
Independent check of accounts
6 of 15Its accounts were not audited or reviewed by an independent accountant.
No reported misuse
0 of 10Reports at least one of: diversion of assets, excess benefits, loans to insiders.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Impact evidence
Describes programs. Its tax return describes what it does but we have found no measurable results in it.
Programs described in its return (6)
- $117,351 spent. As part of our historic preservation program, we own, maintain, and preserve 1247-1253 Whitney Avenue, Hamden, CT, 06517, a National Historic Landmark, which includes the Whitneyville United Church of Christ built in 1834 and its Church House built in 1924, and continue its legacy as a house of worship while continuing to adapt its use to a broader Community Resources Center and the facility in which we run some of our other programs. We completed an electrical upgrade and HVAC installation to 1247 Whitney Avenue, the historic church building, allowing us to operate a contemporary HVAC system to maintain heating, cooling, and moisture in the building in a more effective manner, thus allowing us to preserve it more easily, and adapt it to contemporary expectations. We have been assisting the First Church of Christ Woodbridge with the adaptation of its facilities for broader community use, while preserving the historic features of the buildings and property, helping them to develop plans for the inclusion of a day care within their facilities in a way which abides by the historic preservation requirements of their Preservation Easement and their Historic District requirements.
- $57,038 spent. 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.
- $54,171 spent. Our assembly space program continued to allow use of the historic properties in our trust for broad use for community events, nonprofits, and social gatherings. The Red Cross of America ran Mobile Blood Drives, weekly and without fail, at our facilities throughout the year -- we serve as the New Haven Chapter House of the Red Cross. Social gathering incrementally grew from the previous year, but continued to be our most requested program service proving the vital necessity of social infrastructure for our community through high demand. We hosted roughly two thousand community, nonprofit, and social gatherings during 2024.
- $28,490 spent. Our Coworking Program provides a dynamic shared and private working environment that brings together startups, seasoned professionals, remote researches, freelancers, and solopreneurs, in a public space where they interact more regularly with each other and their community with lower overhead to insure viability of their small businesses, and to give new entrepreneurs a chance to make it in and a reason to stay in our local economy. Our Partner Coworking Organizations: CEIO, Public Allies CT, Black Infinity Collective, Prison2Public Policy, Students for Educational Justice, Real Clear Foundation, Stop Solitary, Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers, and our solo-preneurs, did coworking actiivities in our facilities utilizing both communal spaces and private offices. We also hosted many daytime seminars and presentations from organizations needing short term large spaces to supplement their small offices or work from home teams.
- $18,126 spent. Our Arts and Culture Program provides studio space for artists, venues for performances and showcases and cultural events, space for arts classes and rehearsals, and tools for artistic productions, produced both in partnership with artists and offering our services as tools for artists to produce their own events. It also provides home for culturally significant programming from sub-cultures across Connecticut, including Christian worship & artistic services across denominations, including Pentecostals, UCCs, Episcopalians, Evangelicals, Roman Catholics, and more, and other significant worship and cultural services from across faith and traditional backgrounds. This year, both our churches and arts programming exceeded pre-pandemic levels proving the vital necessity of social infrastructure for arts & culture in GNH.
- $18,783 spent. We produce, on our own and in partnership with members of the community and other organizations, a small number of classes and workshops designed to offering education to the community at large, in any topic or area of interest that serves the benefit of our community members. And we added on incubation and acceleration services for nonprofit development, utilizing our vast experience with many kinds of organizations through coworking, our partnerships with other organizations, and by collecting and synthesizing our own lessons learned as a startup nonprofit social enterprise, to help other individuals and organizations starting and operating nonprofit projects to benefit from the lessons of our coworkers -- we've been doing this in partnership with The People's Place in Waterbury to provide these services directly to their fiscal sponsees at TPP. Additionally, one of our sponsored projects, The Winnett Food Forest, became a free standing 501c3 organization and we regranted its remaining assets on our books to it.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Legitimacy checks
Is it registered with the IRS? Passed.
Listed in the IRS master file of tax-exempt organizations as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
Has the IRS revoked its tax-exempt status? Passed.
Not on the IRS automatic revocation list.
Source: Automatic revocation of exemption list, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 30, 2026.
Are donations tax-deductible? Passed.
On the IRS list of organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.
Source: Publication 78 data: organizations eligible for tax-deductible contributions, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 10, 2026.
Is it keeping up with its IRS filings? Passed.
Most recent return on file covers the year ending December 2024.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
How long has it been tax-exempt? Passed.
Recognized by the IRS since September 2015.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
Is it in good standing with state regulators? Passed.
Not on California's list of charities barred from soliciting. Other states are not yet checked.
Source: May Not Operate or Solicit for Charitable Purposes list, California Attorney General, Registry of Charities and Fundraisers, file dated October 7, 2026.
Ratings and checks are our reading of public records, using the published method. They are not a statement about anyone's honesty. If you work for this organization, you can send corrections or results, confirm you want gifts through Veridonate, or ask to be removed from giving.