Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative
Legal name: Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 474153732
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2015–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- St. Louis, MO, United States
- Phone
- (314) 657-3862
- Rating
- 81
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Water Resource, Wetlands Conservation and Management
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,001,663
- Expenses
- $893,670
- Assets
- $826,809
- Liabilities
- $6,731
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
12 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- COLIN WELLENKAMP (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- COLIN WELLENKAMP (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $133,764 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
There are 124 Mississippi River main stem cities and towns. These riparian population centers are soundly River-centric. MRCTI gives a common voice to cities along the World’s most vital working river, and by virtue of doing so, it spans political and economic interests. That is, it taps a natural source of the longed-for integration of transportation, farming, manufacturing, municipal, and environmental interests to implement solutions. The MRCTI builds the capacity of member mayors to undertake effective local initiatives to attract jobs, move to sustainable economies, and achieve local environmental protection goals. Ultimately, this work protects and restores the Mississippi River as a natural system. MRCTI is a Mayor-led, Mayor comprised effort.
What it reported doing in 2024
In 2024, mrcti advanced its mission by convening over 100 mayors and regional leaders during its capitol meeting in Washington, dc and annual meeting in baton rouge, la. The organization continued to implement its five core programs clean water, sustainable economies, disaster resilience and adaptation, international food and water security, and celebration of river culture. Mrcti helped cities secure over $15 million in funding for local projects, including resilience infrastructure, broadband, commercial corridor revitalization, and riverfront development. It also deployed the region's first environmental impact bonds in memphis and new orleans. Mrcti sustained its national policy leadership by supporting the storm act, restoring the marine highway grant program, and securing designation of the Mississippi river as a critical conservation area.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- 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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and some filed totals do not add up.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 80
- Transparency & Controls: 78
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 52
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 85.7%; rating input score 86
- Program expense ratio: 96.1%; rating input score 96
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 81.8%; rating input score 82; 1st 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; 63rd 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: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 10.8%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.93; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 15%; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 19.3% per year; rating input score 100; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 6.4% per year; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 6.3% per year; rating input score 100; 44th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 8 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 2 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 85.7% of revenue deployed · 96.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $859K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $134K · 12 people listed
- Consistency: 21 of 22 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 10 filing years from 2015 to 2024
- 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.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 40/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 23/100.