Calhoun County Resource Watch
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 742585960
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2023–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2022, Form 990-N 2021
- Location
- Seadrift, TX, USA
- Phone
- 7134014785
- Rating
- 85
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Natural Resources Conservation and Protection
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $246,295
- Expenses
- $379,739
- Assets
- $217,196
- Liabilities
- $6,750
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
4 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- Diane Wilson (Executive Dir.): $14,384 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To promote conservation of the natural resources located in and around Calhoun County, Texas.
What it reported doing in 2025
Calhoun County Resource Watch made significant legal and advocacy progress during this reporting period. Their long-awaited Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Matagorda Ship Channel project was finally released in November 2025, and they submitted comments and testified at a public hearing. Their air permit challenge against Max Midstream's crude export facility reached the Texas Supreme Court, where full merits briefing was ordered - a strong signal of the court's interest. They also successfully challenged ExxonMobil's $242 million tax abatement for a proposed plastics plant, securing an injunction that led ExxonMobil to pause the $10 billion project entirely. On the pollution accountability front, the organization filed a federal Clean Water Act notice of intent to sue Dow, Union Carbide, and Braskem over plastic pellet discharges from Dows Seadrift facility - mirroring the strategy behind their landmark Formosa settlement. When the Texas Attorney General filed its own enforcement suit, they moved to intervene to ensure meaningful outcomes. They also hosted the first-ever People's Microplastics Conference in Port O'Connor, a free two-day event connecting scientists, lawyers, and coastal residents around microplastic health impacts and available legal tools.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 97% 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 - 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 expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 99
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 60
- Sustainability: 17
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 97%; rating input score 97
- Fundraising efficiency: $913.01 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 97; 97th 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: 75%; rating input score 75; 22nd 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: -54.2%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.57; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 3.8%; rating input score 32; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 59.9% per year; rating input score 100; 96th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 28% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 34.7% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 97% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 3 of 4 board members independent · 3 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $368K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $14K · 4 people listed
- Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $108K reported
- Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 4/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 27/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 31/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 32/100.