Asheville Watchdog

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
850614521
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2021, Form 990-N 2020
Location
Asheville, NC, USA
Phone
2026175799
Rating
80
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Printing, Publishing

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$665,198
Expenses
$668,588
Assets
$716,035
Liabilities
$-19,274

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

11 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • CATRINA LLOYD (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • KEITH CAMPBELL (MANAGING EDITOR): $103,000 total reported compensation
  • CATRINA LLOYD (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $25,200 total reported compensation
  • LINDA TOPP (FORMER BOARD CHAIR/FORMER ED): $13,200 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Our mission is to inform and engage the citizens of asheville and surrounding communities by providing fair, factual and reliable in-depth news stories about local government, institutions, issues, and people.

What it reported doing in 2025

Asheville watchdog published 355 stories on our website in 2025, reaching 1,695,132 unique visitors. Our in-depth investigative and local accountability stories about people and institutions in asheville and western North Carolina received 6 million views on our facebook page and 1.9 million views on our instagram account. We hosted three free community events, and our staff spoke to more than a dozen student and community groups about the importance of local journalism. We also added two reporters to our staff of investigative journalists and hired our first director of development

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 94% 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

STRONG - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 65
  • Transparency & Controls: 100
  • Accountability: 86
  • Sustainability: 29
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 71.8%; rating input score 72
  • Program expense ratio: 69.6%; rating input score 70
  • Fundraising efficiency: $5.28 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 17; 17th 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: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 6 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 67
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • 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: -0.5%; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.07; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
  • Officer compensation ratio: 21.1%; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 46.5% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 28.7% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 29.4% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 71.8% of revenue deployed · 69.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 6 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $466K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $103K · 11 people listed
  • Consistency: 22 of 22 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
  • 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 17/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 29/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 45/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 15/100.