Friends of the Salish Sea

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
263040713
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2023–2025
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2022
Location
Anacortes, WA, USA
Rating
48
Verdict
MIXED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Single Organization Support

Reported finances

Revenue
$144,740
Expenses
$98,248
Assets
$108,102

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

Leadership & pay

3 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Tim Gohrke (President)
  • Betty Carteret (Vice-President)

People named in this filing

  • Tim Gohrke (President)
  • Betty Carteret (Vice-President)
  • Lillian Spadoni (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

The Friends of the Salish Sea organization provides volunteer environmental activities and programs for the communities that border marine shorelines Salish Sea Puget Sound and nearshore waters. The activities and programs further our mission to educate and to provide both citizen science and stewardship opportunities.

What it reported doing in 2025

Stormwater Monitoring Project - Launched in 2020 in Anacortes WA with a modest grant $20K from the Rose Foundation. The program recruits and trains community volunteers to routinely monitor municipal stormwater outfalls emptying into Puget Sound for various types of pollution and pathogens E.coli. In 2022 the program expanded and included the cities of Shoreline Edmonds Mukilteo and Oak Harbor. In 2023 the program was expanded to include Bellingham and Everett WA. Key Metrics Accomplishments 7 Puget Sound cities currently have an established program. In 2024 90 Volunteers have been recruited and trained. Approximately 35% of tests result in a referral to the responsible municipal stormwater manager for follow-up actions. This allows the cities to focus time and expense on stormwater pollution source elimination and not monitoring. Each year volunteers find significant pollution discharges in several cities. All are resolved either by the city or the state Department of Ecology. Grants

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 98% 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

MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up and revenue comfortably covers expenses. 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: 4
  • Transparency & Controls: 100
  • Sustainability: 65
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 3.7%; rating input score 4
  • Program expense ratio: 5.5%; rating input score 5

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 32.1%; rating input score 83; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.1; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -43.2% per year; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 17.7% per year; rating input score 100; 79th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 27.4% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 3.7% of revenue deployed · 5.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 4 filed program accomplishments · $5K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 3 people listed
  • Consistency: 6 of 6 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • 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 4/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 5/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.