Ghost Diving USA
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 884025604
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2024–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2024, Form 990-N 2023
- Location
- San Dimas, CA, USA
- Phone
- 5625056345
- Rating
- 85
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Water Resource, Wetlands Conservation and Management
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $62,508
- Expenses
- $79,891
- Assets
- $49,728
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
4 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- James Babor (President & Chief Executive Officer)
- Curtis Wolfslau (Vice President & Director of Information Technology)
- Karim Hamza (Vice President & Secretary)
People named in this filing
- James Babor (President & Chief Executive Officer)
- Curtis Wolfslau (Vice President & Director of Information Technology)
- Catherine McWilliams (Chief Financial Officer & 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 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To recover lost and abandoned fishing gear from sensitive aquatic environments. This abandoned fishing gear, frequently called "ghost gear" endangers and kills marine life long after it was originally abandoned. Our volunteers carry out challenging conservation projects to remove this gear as well as spread awareness of the effects of pollution in our oceans. With our partners, the gear we remove is recycled.
What it reported doing in 2024
Removal of 4000 pounds of abandoned fishing gear from the waters off of San Pedro and Catalina Island in 2024. This comprised of abandoned fishing nets and traps off of mainly deep shipwrecks including the UB88 submarine and Tuna Clipper. This includes 3000 square feet of net.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 99% 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. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 86
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 34
- Growth: NotEnoughData
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 92.8%; rating input score 93
- Program expense ratio: 72.6%; rating input score 73
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: -27.8%; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.62; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: Limited
- Asset growth: Limited
Details
- Where the money goes: 92.8% of revenue deployed · 72.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $58K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 4 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- 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 — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 19/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 34/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.