American Watercraft Association
Legal name: American Watercraft Association Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 200520314
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Ashburn, VA, United States
- Phone
- 800.913.2921
- Rating
- 65
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Safety Education
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $222,272
- Expenses
- $206,436
- Assets
- $195,798
- Liabilities
- $5,716
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
3 people listed
People named in this filing
- BRAD FRANKLIN (CHAIRMAN)
- ALEXANDRE BORDUAS (DIRECTOR)
- CHASE RASTEGAR (TRUSTEE/DIRE)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The American Watercraft Association brings together personal watercraft enthusiasts, powersports dealers, and manufacturers interested in protecting and expanding the PWC lifestyle.
What it reported doing in 2025
The american watercraft association (awa) continues supporting efforts to educate the public. In 2025 the association donated large numbers of life vests in support of state agency life vest loaner sites. Vests donated in Alaska were provided to native villages throughout the remote regions of the state. The awa provided life vests to Washington state, Virginia department of wildlife resources, Wyoming game and fish, Nebraska game adn parks, New York fulton county sheriffs and the hudson river-black river regualting district. Awa continued its annual attendance at the yamaha corporate dealer meeting in august. Dealerships, particularly in Florida, New Hampshire, Tennessee, and Massachusetts are affected directly by boating safety issues. In Florida, awa continues to work with in-state boating groups and member dealers to bring attention to flaws in boating safety legislation which negatively impacted members and users. This includes education of members on technicalities of current boating laws thus helping those small businesses avoid conflict. Awa continues to be a member of the manatee forum in Florida. This group is comprised of boating user groups and environmental groups working together on policies best suited for the protecting the manatees and user access to public waters. In New York state, awa continues to support efforts by the adirondack jet ski club. The group is composed of state certified instructors providing ny state safe boating courses for member agencies of "safe waterways working group."
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 100% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- 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. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 73
- Transparency & Controls: 90
- Accountability: 6
- Sustainability: 47
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 79.5%; rating input score 80
- Program expense ratio: 85.6%; rating input score 86
- Fundraising efficiency: $0 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 1; 1st 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: 0%; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 1 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 14
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 7.1%; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.95; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 1.2% per year; rating input score 100; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 2% per year; rating input score 100; 30th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 20.5% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 79.5% of revenue deployed · 85.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 0 of 3 board members independent · 1 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $177K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 3 people listed
- Consistency: 22 of 22 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- 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 — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 0/100.
- High — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 6 not reported.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 1/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 51/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 40/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 31/100.