Florida Springs Council Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 812889063
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2023–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2022, Form 990-N 2017
- Location
- Gainesville, FL, USA
- Phone
- 5613587191
- Rating
- 77
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Research Institutes and/or Public Policy Analysis
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $352,516
- Expenses
- $310,273
- Assets
- $165,534
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
14 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Ryan Smart (Executive Director)
- Brad Rimbey (Director & Vice President)
- John Jopling (Director & President)
Highest reported compensation
- Ryan Smart (Executive Director): $88,934 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Florida Springs, River, and Aquifer protection
What it reported doing in 2025
Environmental Advocacy: FSC coordinates and leads statewide and regional advocacy campaigns to protect Florida's springs from development, pollution, excessive water withdrawals, and recreational overuse. FSC's work focuses on 30 Outstanding Florida Springs and Rivers identified in Florida Statute. FSC assists community members, local governments, and agency personnel in developing policies to protect Florida's springs and oppose decisions that would harm Florida's springs. In 2025, FSC had a major role in the drafting and adoption of several county urban fertilizer ordinances, the Santa Fe River Minimum Flow and Level Recovery Strategy, and Basin Management Action Plans for 26 impaired Outstanding Florida Springs. FSC leads multiple efforts to protect and conserve lands at risk of development in central and north Florida. FSC provides technical and advocacy support to individuals and local groups in rural and underserved areas under threat of development, pollution, or excessive water withdrawals.
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
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 67
- Transparency & Controls: 84
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 46
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 68.1%; rating input score 68
- Program expense ratio: 75.9%; rating input score 76
- Fundraising efficiency: $8.06 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 32; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90%; rating input score 90; 10th 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: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- 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: 12%; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.53; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 28.7%; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 6.2% per year; rating input score 100; 55th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 19.1% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 18.2% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 68.1% of revenue deployed · 75.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 13 of 13 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $236K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $89K · 14 people listed
- Consistency: 39 of 40 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- 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: Fundraising efficiency scored 32/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 26/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 12/100.