Georges River Land Trust
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 010424837
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2014–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Rockland, ME, USA
- Phone
- 2075945166
- Rating
- 82
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Land Resources Conservation
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $842,180
- Expenses
- $846,043
- Assets
- $7,474,378
- Liabilities
- $37,300
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Lucy Crocker Abisalih (President)
People named in this filing
- Alvin Chase (Director)
- Lucy Crocker Abisalih (President)
- Gail Presley (Secretary)
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 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The Georges River Land Trust's mission is to conserve the ecosystems and traditional heritage of the Georges River Watershed Region through permanent land protection, stewardship, education, and outdoor experiences.
What it reported doing in 2024
The land protection program serves the membership of GRLT and participating landowners by working to protect high value conservation lands throughout the St George River Watershed. GRLT has a community-based approach to land protection, which is guided by strategic planning and operated in compliance with land trust alliance standards and practices. GRLT focuses its land conservation efforts in the highest value areas of the watershed as determined through a conservation planning process. The land protection program collaborates with the stewardship program on community and landowner outreach, stewardship budgets, baseline data for protected lands, easement amendments and landowner visits. GRLT participates in a variety of forums, including meetings with landowners and their advisors, partnerships with organizations and agencies, communications with the GRLT Board of Directors, Committee members and donors, and public speaking opportunities at regional and statewide venues.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 82% 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
STRONG - 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: 77
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 88
- Sustainability: 61
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 83.3%; rating input score 83
- Program expense ratio: 80.5%; rating input score 81
- Fundraising efficiency: $9.8 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
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; 63rd 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: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -0.5%; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 8.83; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 11.5% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -4.7% per year; rating input score 0; 5th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 7.6% per year; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 83.3% of revenue deployed · 80.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 5 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $681K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 11 people listed
- Consistency: 31 of 32 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 10 filing years from 2014 to 2024
- 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.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 37/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 34/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.