Chatham Marconi Maritime Center Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 371445768
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- North Chatham, MA, USA
- Phone
- 5089458889
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Museum, Museum Activities
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $286,175
- Expenses
- $241,004
- Assets
- $1,399,553
- Liabilities
- $83,751
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
16 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- ROBERT FISHBACK (PRESIDENT)
People named in this filing
- RICHARD BAUMAN (DIRECTOR)
- JOHN COTNAM (DIRECTOR)
- CAROLYN CRAGIN (VICE PRESIDE)
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
Chatham marconi maritime center preserves the history of chatham radio/wcc and celebrates 20th century maritime communication through interpretive museum exhibits, educational programs and community engagement.
What it reported doing in 2025
The marconi-rca wireless museum is the core of the center's mission and operations, preserving the unique history of maritime wireless telegraphy which began when in 1914 radio pioneer guglielmo marconi's company built a transatlantic wireless receiving station in north chatham, Massachusetts. The museum curates exhibits on marconi's cape cod legacy; on ship-to-shore wireless telegraphy as employed the radio corporation of america for most of the 20th century operating as chatham radio/wcc; and on the site's wwii wartime role as the us navy's "station c" which eavesdropped on german u- boat radio transmissions. In 2025, the center invested in a major professionally-produced interpretive exhibit about life in chatham during wwii. The museum served 4,000 visitors and students in 2025. Museum operations are funded by a combination of visitor admission fees, designated donations and grants received, member dues and merchandise sales.
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 - 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: 61
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 88
- Sustainability: 66
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 67%; rating input score 67
- Program expense ratio: 63.7%; rating input score 64
- Fundraising efficiency: $5 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 21; 21st 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 5 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 71
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 15.8%; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 5.81; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.06; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 4.3% per year; rating input score 100; 48th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 0.7% per year; rating input score 100; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 4.1% per year; rating input score 100; 40th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 67% of revenue deployed · 63.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 16 of 16 board members independent · 5 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $154K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 16 people listed
- Consistency: 25 of 25 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- 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 21/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 26/100.