Grove City Area Convention & Visitors Bureau

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
311267862
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Grove City, OH, USA
Phone
6145398747
Rating
48
Verdict
MIXED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$489,146
Expenses
$527,227
Assets
$144,773
Liabilities
$48,898

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

Leadership & pay

11 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • BEVERLY BABBERT (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • AMANDA J DAVIS (EXECUTIVE DI): $89,789 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Advertise and promote growth of tourism to the grove city area. Marketing of hotel lodging and local events.

What it reported doing in 2025

The grove city area convention and visitors bureau developed campaign strategies and invested in marketing and advertising outside central Ohio and beyond. A few key campaign metrics include: - thanks to investment in new tools for the latter half of 2025, visit grove city tracked 3,926 visitors to our website who then made an in person visit to grove city. Typical rate of visitation from other destination websites, as calculated by this oxford economics tool, averaged 3.5% to 4%, while visitgrovecity.com had a rate of visitation of 8.39%. Most notably, our arts in the alley festival page delivered a 20.83% rate of visitation from visitors who came after learning more about the festival on our website. - from july to december 2025, we used this tool to track direct, indirect, and induced spending for a total economic footprint of 660,000 in just six months based on visits to our website. - ohiotraveler.com receives approximately 70,000 unique visitors/month, 300,000 page views/month, an average of about four pages visited per visitor, and 80,000 social media followers. Visit grove city has a rotating ad that runs on every page and refreshed position with every refresh of the page. Our ads received 12,809 click-throughs on ohiotraveler.com. - our grove city adventure guides are distributed in many ways, one being ohios travel information centers. In 2025, 5,000 guides were distributed from may - december. - the Ohio travel pavilion is present at trade shows around Ohio and the surrounding states. Approximately 4,000 guides were distributed in 2025, and visit grove city has 2 banners that are displayed at every show. - tourismohio co-op paid social media for march 2025 - october 2025 resulted in 953,163 impressions and 41,662 click-thrus - 325+ approx night stays facilitated by vgc: Ohio association of convention and visitors bureaus annual conference, msxl paintball tournament, ripe online booking tool, and more (average room rate 109.00 x 325 = 35,425 positive lodging overnights) - captured 27 group travel leads via trade show appointments, working to turn them into visits - met with and secured the 2026 sons of the american legion regional conference, which will include an estimated 200 room nights, plus food/beverage and activities, with an approximate impact of over 60k - 200+ group tour bags, events/new resident kits, and custom informational bags handed out holiday cocktail trail - engagement - 496 passport registrations, 1,675 total check-ins (purchases at partner businesses), 156 completed passports. Average drink price 10 x 1,675 = 16,750.00, minimum estimated revenue for local businesses, not including any food or gratuity

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 96% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
Distribution model
Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.

The verdict

MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. 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: 0
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 18
  • Growth: 40

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 0%; rating input score 0
  • Program expense ratio: 0%; rating input score 0
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • 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: -7.8%; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.27; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.34; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 17%; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -11.6% per year; rating input score 0; 10th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 5% per year; rating input score 100; 48th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -1.2% per year; rating input score 0; 18th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 0% of revenue deployed · 0% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment
  • Leadership: top reported pay $90K · 11 people listed
  • Consistency: 11 of 12 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 2 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 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.

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 0/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Functional expense sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 21/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 15/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 12/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 21/100.