Alliance for the Mystic River Watershed
Legal name: Alliance for Mystic River Watershed
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 883766501
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2025–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2024, Form 990-N 2023
- Location
- Mystic, CT, USA
- Phone
- 8606174106
- Rating
- 75
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Natural Resources Conservation and Protection
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $346,086
- Expenses
- $375,593
- Assets
- $71,559
- Liabilities
- $46,771
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- DR ZBIGNIEW J GRABOWSKI (EXECUTIVE DI): $123,180 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Collaborating for the thriving of all life in Connecticut's Mystic River Watershed.
What it reported doing in 2025
We will: 1. Improve community resilience by expanding citizen participation in decision making and stewardship; 2. Improve the quality of water and habitats and nourish ecological health; 3. Inform and coordinate efforts to reduce risks from climate change impacts; 4. Advocate for climate-smart development and healthy, thriving communities; 5. Promote youth well-being and school involvement through stewardship, citizen science and civic engagement.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% 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.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 77
- Transparency & Controls: 90
- Accountability: 74
- Sustainability: 15
- Growth: 40
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 84.8%; rating input score 85
- Program expense ratio: 78.2%; rating input score 78
- Fundraising efficiency: $8.68 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -8.5%; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.19; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.65; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 32.8%; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: 86.2% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -40.4% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 17 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 8 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 84.8% of revenue deployed · 78.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 3 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $294K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $123K · 11 people listed
- Consistency: 22 of 22 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 7 not reported.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 34/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 20/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 12/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 7/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 9/100.