American Caribbean Maritime Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
474047350
IRS 990 coverage
2019–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2017
Location
Boca Raton, FL, USA
Phone
5617576881
Rating
78
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Human Service Organizations

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$554,838
Expenses
$537,882
Assets
$749,659
Liabilities
$205,987

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

12 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • GENEIVE BROWN METZGER (PRESIDENT&EX)

Highest reported compensation

  • GENEIVE BROWN METZGER (PRESIDENT&EX): $100,000 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

American caribbean maritime foundation ("the foundation") is a not-for- profit organization whose primary purpose is alleviating poverty and transforming lives in the caribbean through maritime education and community development. The foundation exists to support aspiring caribbean maritime professionals and workers who are looking to be trained at any of acmf academic partners: the caribbean maritime university, university of trinidad and tobago, and ljm maritime academy (bahamas), atlantic alliance off-shore maritime training institute, and matpal marine institute. The foundation also supports job placement through its jobs board and by collaborating with crewing agencies. The foundation's activities are focused on raising funds for scholarships, equipment, facilities and infrastructure, including classrooms and physical amenities. The foundation supports the development of the maritime community in which the caribbean maritime university is located.

What it reported doing in 2024

The acmf, just after a few short years, has transformed the lives of hundreds of aspiring caribbean seafarers and maritime professionals, and thousands who have benefited from the classroom we helped to fund, and the equipment donated by the foundation. In 2024, the acmf significantly expanded its scholarship and grant award program. In 2018, it was thirteen (13) and grew to two hundred eighty-nine (289) in 2024. We launched a digital scholarship portal, which, when added to our digital jobs board (exclusively for caribbean maritime graduates) launched in the previous yearmakes our delivery of services more seamless and efficient. Our work with major shipping companies serving the caribbean resulted in unique partnerships including expanding our cruise partnerships to royal caribbean, norwegian cruise line, msc, and carnival. We hosted our first formal scholarship awards program in jamaica in collaboration with the us embassy in kingston, presided over by the us ambassador, and attended by maritime authority leaders, students, academic partners from jamaica and guyana. Bearing in mind that we are approaching our tenth anniversary in 2027, we held two strategic planning sessions to assess our operations and impact and get input from the shipping industry as to how to better deliver on our mission and serve the industry. We began efforts to expand our country network to include belize in the 2024. Our focus going forward is "talent in our backyard". Women continue to be under-represented at senior levels in the maritime field and we have focused on ensuring that they receive the kind of support they need to get access to maritime academic training. They continue to be a focus of our scholarship and grant awards-wherein 50% of our scholarships are awarded to them. We capped off 2024 with the annual anchor awards in december honoring two leaders from the cruise and cargo sectors. The event brought together top brass of the cruise and cargo shipping industry, and maritime professionals from across the caribbean, panama, europe and united states. The acmf is succeeding in its mission to transform lives of the caribbean youth through maritime education and development. To date, we have awarded 289 scholarships and grants to students from jamaica, bahamas, grenada, st. Vincent and the grenadines, trinidad and tobago, guyana, dominican republic, suriname, and st. Lucia. The average gpa of our scholars is 3.2; and two of our scholars were honored as valedictorians. We have also funded sea time for several students and created a unique jobs board platform that is free to use to our graduates. The platform has registered almost 300 cadets, and several cruise and cargo companies have hired cadets from the platform. The acmf hosted its seventh anchor awards honoring laura hodges bethge, president of celebrity cruises and carlos urriola, chairman ssa marine mit (panama). The acmf has signed on the following strategic partners: women in maritime caribbean (wimac), caribbean shipping association, and the shipping association of barbados.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Grant intermediary. The nonprofit sent 74% of its reported program spending out as grants.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 77
  • Transparency & Controls: 77
  • Accountability: 85
  • Sustainability: 42
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 80.8%; rating input score 81
  • Program expense ratio: 83.3%; rating input score 83
  • Fundraising efficiency: $9.7 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: 1 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 12
    • Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
    • Requires narrative reports: Fail
    • Conducts field audits: Fail
    • May suspend future funding: Fail
    • Requires financial reports: Fail
    • Conducts site visits: Fail
    • Requires grant agreements: Fail
    • May require repayment: Fail
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 24th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Fail
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 3.1%; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.39; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.27; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 18.6%; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 30.5% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 20.6% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 24.4% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 80.8% of revenue deployed · 83.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 11 of 12 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $448K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $100K · 12 people listed
  • Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and foreign activity
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2019 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight: 7 of 8 not reported.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 37/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 45/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 53/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 17/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 26/100.