Atlantic Challenge USA Co Erin Ferree
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 833459645
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2023–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2022, Form 990-N 2019
- Location
- Belfast, ME, USA
- Phone
- 2076109554
- Rating
- 69
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Amateur Sports
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $287,023
- Expenses
- $150,707
- Assets
- $230,785
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
7 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Erin Ferree (President)
Highest reported compensation
- Arista Holden (Executive Dir.): $36,250 total reported compensation
- Erin Ferree (President): $10,000 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
We are an international experiential education organization operating in many nations. Atlantic Challenge International programs practice, share, and encourage the rise of the skills of the sea including boat building, sailing, rowing, and seamanship. Its activities bring youth together with the intent of fostering cultural and global understanding.
What it reported doing in 2024
For the fiscal year ending October 31, 2025, Atlantic Challenge USA offered rowing, sailing, seamanship, music, boatbuilding, island stewardship, and experiential education programs in Maine and Massachusetts. Programs included 12 weeks of community rowing in Belfast Harbor during the spring and fall; several volunteer work weekends maintaining our island training base, Greens Island, and our Bantry Bay gigs on Greens Island, in Rockland and in Nobleboro; oar-building in Belfast and Rockland; and the beginning of construction of a new Bantry Bay gig at Lowells Boat Shop in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Atlantic Challenge also brought one of our gigs to Kittery, Maine and Amesbury, Massachusetts for several days of community rowing and outreach.Summer programming included a six-day intergenerational Family Week on Greens Island; a seven-day Music on the Water program; a ten-day Contest Training program; a five-day Sail the Fleet program; and a weeklong expedition among the islands of Penobscot Bay. These summer programs on Greens Island served approximately 130 participants during the summer, in addition to the 170 volunteers who participated in our spring and fall work weekends and in our community rowing programs.Altogether, these activities provided opportunities for more than 300 participants and volunteers to develop traditional rowing, sailing, seamanship, teamwork, music, boatbuilding, and coastal stewardship skills; all skills and activities meant to build capability, connection, confidence, and strengthen community.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 79% 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 - The filed numbers largely add up and revenue comfortably covers expenses. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 59
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 58
- Sustainability: 69
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 40.6%; rating input score 41
- Program expense ratio: 76.6%; rating input score 77
- Fundraising efficiency: $1,722.78 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 99; 99th 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: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 83.3%; rating input score 83; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 2 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 22
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 47.5%; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.53; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 30.7%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -47.2% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 44% per year; rating input score 100; 96th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 43.5% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 40.6% of revenue deployed · 76.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 5 of 6 board members independent · 2 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $115K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $36K · 7 people listed
- Consistency: 19 of 19 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 2 filing years from 2023 to 2024
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 41/100.
- High — Accountability: Governance controls: 6 of 8 not reported.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 52/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 11/100.