Greater Lowell Community Foundation Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 043401997
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Lowell, MA, USA
- Phone
- 9789701600
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Community Foundations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $8,814,269
- Expenses
- $7,354,074
- Assets
- $75,199,784
- Liabilities
- $13,368,511
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
25 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- James F Linnehan (President/CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- James F Linnehan (President/CEO): $210,353 total reported compensation
- Howard Amidon (VP of Philanthropy): $163,670 total reported compensation
- Jennifer Aradhya (VP for Marketing): $155,678 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The mission of the greater lowell community foundation is to improve the quality of life in the area. The foundation is a community resource, which attracts funds, distributes grants, and serves as a catalyst and leader among funders, agencies and individuals to address identified and emergent needs. The community foundation is a professional, compassionate steward of donor funds and builds upon the creative vision of its founders and the community. It promotes and encourages the role of philanthropy in improving the quality of life in the communities it serves.
What it reported doing in 2025
Distributing grants to local non-profit agencies and scholarships to area students in accordance with our mission to improve the quality of life in the greater lowell community.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 75% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Grant intermediary. The nonprofit sent 68% of its reported program spending out as grants.
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: 87
- Transparency & Controls: 72
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 67
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 91.7%; rating input score 92
- Program expense ratio: 90.5%; rating input score 90
- Fundraising efficiency: $17.63 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 94.4%; rating input score 94; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 95.2%; rating input score 95; 35th percentile among comparable filings
- 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: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 16.6%; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 10.23; rating input score 89; 89th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.18; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 8.9%; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 12.1% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 8.6% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 8.6% per year; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 91.7% of revenue deployed · 90.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 25 of 25 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $6.7M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $210K · 25 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 36 of 37 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 16 filing years from 2010 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 114 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 106 filed related-organization links
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 55/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 37/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 37/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.