Friends of Acadia

What it reported doing in 2025

Additionally, Friends of Acadia contributes to a variety of community outreach events such as the Earth Day Roadside Clean-up and Soil to the Summits hikes. In partnership with Acadia National Park, Friends implements and contributes to other programs including the Summit Stewards, the Wild Garden of Acadia, the Recreation Technicians, the Acadia Winter Trails Association, the Island Explorer, invasive plant eradication, the peregrine falcon and hawk watch program, Acadia Teacher Fellows Program, water quality monitoring, rehabilitation of historic buildings, and a volunteer program that typically contributes over 5,000 hours of time per year to help maintain Acadia's trails and carriage roads. FOA continues to help ANP address the ongoing seasonal employee housing shortage. In 2025, construction continued at Harden Farm, an ANP project that FOA contributed an additional $4.5 million to help complete, adding to the $7M contributed during 2024. Phase One, 28 new one bedroom and studio apartments, was completed, and Phase Two, another 28 one bedroom and studio apartments, was initiated. Solar panels were installed at FOA's seasonal housing complex in Trenton, Maine with a potential energy savings of nearly $600,000 over 25 years. FOA also secured funding to install solar panels at Harden Farm with a potential energy savings of $300,000 during its lifetime. 2025 welcomed inaugural residents at the newly completed Dane Farm complex in Seal Harbor, Maine, housing eight seasonal employees for ANP.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
• Program expense ratio: 82.8%; rating input score 83
• Fundraising efficiency: $5.25 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 94.4%; rating input score 94; 25th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
  • Compensation committee: Missing
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
  • Written employment contract: Missing
  • Compensation survey or study: Pass
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
• Grant itemization coverage: 99.5%; rating input score 99; 46th 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: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: -7.5%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 7.37; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 90; 90th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 9.9%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 14% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 6.1% per year; rating input score 100; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 10.4% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings