Maine Rural Water Association
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 010366057
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Aug 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Richmond, ME, US
- Phone
- (207) 737-4092
- Rating confidence
- Limited
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $3,824,822
- Expenses
- $3,608,737
- Assets
- $1,357,306
- Liabilities
- $816,120
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- PENNY LOWE (VICE PRESIDENT)
- NICK RICO (PRESIDENT)
- KIRSTEN HEBERT (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- KIRSTEN HEBERT (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $188,799 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Maine Rural Water Association's primary mission is to be known as the leading provider of accessible, high-quality training and expert technical assistance that promotes safe operations, regulatory compliance and long-term sustainability for the water and wastewater industry.
What it reported doing in 2024
Mrwa provides contract operations for districts and small systems. These contracts include financial services (bookkeeping, customer services), licensed operations (district operations run under mrwa's licensed operators), and other contract operations for testing done monthly, quarterly or annually.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 76% 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
- The available evidence is not sufficient to produce an overall rating for this filing. This is not a warning sign.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: NotEnoughData
- Transparency & Controls: 70
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 36
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: Limited
- Program expense ratio: Limited
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 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: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 5.6%; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.38; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.6; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 5.2%; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: 7.5% per year; rating input score 100; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 3.4% per year; rating input score 100; 26th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 6 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: Financial trends and filed revenue, expense, asset, and liability detail
- Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments
- Leadership: top reported pay $189K · 10 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 12 of 12 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 11 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- Related organizations: 2 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 12/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 52/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 17/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 52/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.