Leahy Center for Lake Champlain Inc

What it reported doing in 2025

The public face of the leahy center for lake champlain inc. (dba echo, leahy center for lake champlain or echo) is Vermont's premier science and nature museum, located on burlington's waterfront overlooking beautiful lake champlain. Our mission is to inspire and engage everyone in the joy of scientific discovery, wonder of nature, and care of lake champlain. Visitors can explore over 100 interactive exhibits, encounter 50 live species, enjoy seasonal changing exhibitions, and experience immersive science and nature movies in our dealer.com 3d theater. Since opening our doors in 2003, we've welcomed more than 3 million visitors while operating 360 days per year. Today, our exhibits, programs, and collection of native aquatic animals reach more than 160,000 people annually. This includes 16,000 members, 7,500 school group visitors, 30,000 reduced-or free-admission guests, and 10,000 students, teachers, and families through our statewide rural outreach program. Echo is a public place where all are welcome and belong, where science and nature come alive, and where stewardship for a better tomorrow takes root and grows throughout Vermont. The nonprofit is governed by a 17-member board of directors, which retains responsibility for defining echo's overall strategic direction, ensuring the institution remains on track and achieves its goals. The primary responsibilities of the echo board include finance, fundraising, strategy, and policy. As a general matter, board members are not directly involved in echo's daily operations, as these duties are the responsibility of management. Board members serve on one of four committees that meet multiple times each year: policy & governance, planning & finance, audit & ethics, investment, and stewardship. The entire board meets quarterly within the fiscal year. Principal programs & annual accomplishments: supported by meaningful partnerships and an informed understanding of audience need, echo provides high-impact science-based learning experiences in and outside our walls. Animal care program: promoting environmental stewardship and ecology by connecting the public to 50 native species of fish, amphibians, and reptiles with twice-daily animal care demos and back-of-house tours. Turtle headstart program: echo partners with the Vermont fish & wildlife department to provide care for neonate spiny softshell and map turtles throughout the winter. The bigger turtles are released into lake champlain in the summer, giving them a better chance of survival. Echo early learning: eel is a free, academic year-long, caregiver-child program training caregivers and supporting healthy development and school readiness for early learners outside the formal care system. The program supports play-based learning for children and caregivers together, reading readiness, caregiver learning, and resources to foster safe, supportive, and enriching learning environments for children at home. Statewide stem outreach: we deliver hands-on stem programs and teacher professional development to rural, underserved early childhood classrooms while creating a new career awareness curriculum and take-home stem activity kits. Each year, echo educators work with over 60 educators and 900 students. Teacher institute: teachers from across Vermont participate in an echo-led, year-long community of practice to integrate engineering design into their classroom curricula. Traveling stem festivals: stem festivals travel in our stem in motion box truck and include enough activities and engineering challenges to fill a gym. E-team: our teen intern team members participate in weekly professional development, take monthly career exploration field trips, and work in the engineer it program space for 4 hours per week. College intern and volunteer program: annually, 75 undergraduate students gain career-relevant experience in animal care, science education, it, development, communications, and event management. Echo's open door program: a yearly c

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 93.1%; rating input score 93
• Program expense ratio: 84.2%; rating input score 84
• Fundraising efficiency: $21.59 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
  • Compensation committee: Missing
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
  • Written employment contract: Pass
  • Compensation survey or study: Missing
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• 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: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: -3.6%; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.44; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.09; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 8.6%; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 6.7% per year; rating input score 100; 45th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 4.1% per year; rating input score 100; 30th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 4.2% per year; rating input score 100; 29th percentile among comparable filings