Friends of Moorefields

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
262570121
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2021
Location
Hillsborough, NC, USA
Phone
9193603520
Rating
80
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Historical Societies, Related Historical Activities

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$65,473
Expenses
$97,083
Assets
$1,226,031
Liabilities
$903

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

11 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • PAM HEMMINGER (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • CECILY T NISBET (EXECUTIVE DI): $22,397 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Moorefields has a rich tradition dating to the mid-20th century of stewards who honor and protect its history, celebrate the arts, and protect the wildlife habitats and natural areas that are essential to this place. The mission of the friends of moorefields is to enhance and share these priorities through: - maintaining and preserving the moorefields historic house and grounds; - acting as a valuable resource for research and education, as well as investigating and sharing with the public the cultural history of all those who lived and worked at moorefields; - fostering appreciation of the arts by engaging diverse audiences in events, programs and educational opportunities; and - safeguarding the site's waterways, protecting its natural habitats, and connecting people with nature and history through public engagement.

What it reported doing in 2025

In addition to routine repairs and maintenance of the house and grounds, ongoing efforts to maintain and preserve the historic house at moorefields included interior and exterior painting, improvements to the long gravel driveway entrance to the site, replacement of the 50-year-old water tank, and planting of 20 white oak trees as part of a plan to replace the 50 oak trees planted around the house when it was built in 1785, all of which are now gone. Volunteers were engaged to plant the trees. New signage was installed in preparation for increased site visits. The 6,745 cost of the work was supported by a 10,000 grant from the ochiltree foundation. The olchiltree grant also supported 3,698 to equip an office to accommodate the hiring of the organization's first part-time staff and upgrade of the organization's communications capacity. Work on the archaeological survey project, begun in 2023 continued in 2025 utilizing a 91,928 grant from the national park service through the nc state historic preservation office. The project includes an archaeological survey undertaken to provide initial information about the lives of people who lived and worked on the site as well as extensive historical research to support an expansion of the national register nomination to include the entire property rather than the house only. 8,680 in grant funds were expended in 2025 to support research and submission of the revised nomination, as well as creation of power point presentation project detailing the history of the site and the archaeological work to date. This project is expected to be completed in 2026. Four free summer tour days of the house and grounds were staffed by volunteer board members, hosting approximately 175 people, and with the addition of staff, the organization began opening the site to the public on a regular weekly basis in september. Free wildflower, birding, and historical landscape hikes were held in the spring and fall led by volunteer knowledgeable professionals. An additional 150 people visited moorefields to participate in these programs. The annual bluegrass festival was held on the lawn in october 2025, attended by approximately 500 people. The festival grossed 15,384. Expenses totaled 6,948.

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

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 revenue has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 80
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 79
  • Sustainability: 38
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 71.6%; rating input score 72
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -48.3%; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 12.63; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 23.1%; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 13.2% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -62.4% per year; rating input score 0; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 10.5% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 71.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $69K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $22K · 11 people listed
  • Consistency: 27 of 27 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 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.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 26/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 9/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 29/100.