Citizens for a Better Eastern Shore
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 541518922
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2021–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2017, Form 990-EZ 2025
- Location
- Exmore, VA, USA
- Phone
- 7572974417
- Rating
- 44
- Verdict
- MIXED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Human Service Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $138,620
- Expenses
- $140,407
- Assets
- $164,589
- Liabilities
- $2,585
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
7 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Merriweather Payne (President)
- Eleanor Gordon (VIce President)
People named in this filing
- Merriweather Payne (President)
- Donna Bozza (Director)
- Gary Shrieves (Treasurer)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Preserve natural and cultural resources for citizens of the Eastern Shoree
What it reported doing in 2025
Shore Line Publication
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Other-operating. 67% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 91% 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
MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 14
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 36
- Growth: 40
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 13.8%; rating input score 14
- Program expense ratio: 12.9%; rating input score 13
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -1.3%; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.17; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 51.2%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -11% per year; rating input score 0; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 6.2% per year; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -0.4% per year; rating input score 0; 25th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 13.8% of revenue deployed · 12.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $18K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 7 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2021 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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: Mission deployment rate scored 14/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 13/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 27/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 5/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 34/100.