Lyme Historians Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 222848393
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2015–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2014
- Location
- Lyme, NH, USA
- Phone
- 6037952508
- Rating
- 65
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $148,832
- Expenses
- $40,894
- Assets
- $1,173,663
- Liabilities
- $1,500
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- BILL MURPHY (PRESIDENT)
People named in this filing
- MARGARET CALDWELL (BOARD MEMBER)
- ERIK COLBERG (TREASURER)
- JANE FANT (BOARD MEMBER)
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 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The lyme historians, inc. Was founded in 1961 with the purpose of helping to document the town's history, keeping it alive and relevant to the present day by maintaining exhibits and collections and acquiring books, maps, documents and artifacts pertaining to lyme, New Hampshire.
What it reported doing in 2025
2025 was another successful year for the lyme historians. Over the course of the summer and fall we hosted over 200 visitors to exhibits and events at our main street and chesley school museums. Our april annual meeting drew an audience of approximately 60 residents to a presentation about the 1938 hurricane that pummeled new england. Speaker steve long gave special attention to the hurricane's impact on lyme, including the hundreds of thousands of logs stored and milled at post pond. As in years past, the historians hosted a successful porch party over the summer that attracted many residents for conversation and learning. We expanded the concept to include "porch chats" where a board member was available to discuss anything of interest to a visitor while enjoyng a cool drink and cookie. We continued our second saturday series where several long time lyme residents discussed their own small town life experiences growing up in town. In late summer, we hosted our first outdoor sing-a-long, where guests joined an accomplished musician in singing a range of songs spanning 150 years of american history. In the fall, we decorated the museum for halloween festivities and were generous donators of candy for children of the community. The highlight of the winter holiday season was a well- attended wassail party where singing was once again front and center as guests caroled to the music of our estes pump organ.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 88% 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
SUPPORTED - 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 some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 45
- Transparency & Controls: 86
- Accountability: 70
- Sustainability: 87
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 28.8%; rating input score 29
- Program expense ratio: 88.1%; rating input score 88
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 20th 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 2 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 29
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 72.5%; rating input score 96; 96th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 28.7; rating input score 97; 97th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 4.8% per year; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -20.4% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 5% per year; rating input score 100; 44th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 28.8% of revenue deployed · 88.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 2 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $36K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 10 people listed
- Consistency: 19 of 20 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 10 filing years from 2015 to 2025
- 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.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 29/100.
- High — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 6 not reported.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 50/100.