Charleston Regional Development Alliance

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
571015804
IRS 990 coverage
2009–2024
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Charleston, SC, US
Phone
(843) 767-9300
Rating
79
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$4,301,925
Expenses
$4,364,632
Assets
$3,578,192
Liabilities
$1,317,897

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

Leadership & pay

169 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • DAVID GINN (PRESIDENT AND CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • DAVID GINN (PRESIDENT AND CEO): $433,855 total reported compensation
  • KAREN H KUCHENBECKER (VP OPERATIONS): $269,984 total reported compensation
  • MICHAEL J GRANEY (VP GLOBAL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT): $245,363 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

CRDA is the region’s economic development alliance, uniting business, academic, and public-sector leaders to drive long-term prosperity and global competitiveness.

What it reported doing in 2024

Crda is an alliance of business, government and higher education working together to drive a strong, sustainable economy in the charleston region. Our efforts include a comprehensive marketing and business development program designed to attract the world's best companies, talent and entrepreneurs to the greater charleston area. We also facilitate the site selection process for companies considring our market for competitive expanion or location investments. During fy24-25, crda continued our gloablly focused business development work in partnership with the sc department of commerce and other key economic development partners by the region's most influential business leaders, three county governments, largest municipalies, and top academic institutions. Of the companies considering our region for competitive investments, five made formal commitments for the charleston region, including four with an innovation-related focus. These projects will generate $210 million annual economic impact for the region and generate over 534 jobs with wages that exceed the region's median salaries. In addition to these project wins, crda staff assists our municipal and investor partners with their business development goals through the completion of 340 research projects this fiscal year. Collectively, this focus has propelled charleston into a ranking of the 34th most innovator metro area in the united states. To help catalyze charleston's next wave of economic development, crda worked with numerous stakeholders to create a 5 year economic development strategy prioritizing innovation for our region. Other key accomplishments including being a catalyst for employment in the region (for both external and in-market) candidates through such tools as our getro job platform, which ranks in the top 15% of all user platforms nationwide and funneled over 5,700 qualifed candidates to regional companies. We have also continued to sponsor and program the charleston intern network series to retain and attract top talent in the region. In line with our innovation focus, staff completed and published a reigonal innovation scorecard, which compares our region against 5 key markets along multiple data points.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
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 most voting board members are independent. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 90
  • Transparency & Controls: 56
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 26
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 91.5%; rating input score 91
  • Program expense ratio: 90%; rating input score 90
  • Fundraising efficiency: $117 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 93.8%; rating input score 94; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Missing
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -1.5%; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.82; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.37; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 30%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 5.4% per year; rating input score 100; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 2.6% per year; rating input score 100; 24th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 6.4% per year; rating input score 100; 42nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 6 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
  • Where the money goes: 91.5% of revenue deployed · 90% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 120 of 120 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $3.9M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $434K · 169 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 4 contractors listed · $593K reported
  • Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes executive pay
  • Filing history: 15 filing years from 2009 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 5 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • 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: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 28/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 30/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 5/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 29/100.