Mount Desert 365

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
821645703
IRS 990 coverage
2017–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Northeast Harbor, ME, USA
Phone
2072760555
Rating
73
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Urban, Community Economic Development

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$197,032
Expenses
$624,154
Assets
$11,505,609
Liabilities
$935,638

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

Leadership & pay

11 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • JAMES R BRIGHT (PRESIDENT)
  • PHILIP MORIARTY (PRESIDENT)
  • RICHARD SAVAGE (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • KATHLEEN MILLER (EXECUTIVE DI): $156,883 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Mount desert 365 (the corporation) engages in activities to preserve and increase the supply of affordable workforce housing for year-round residents of mount desert (the town) and promote economic revitalization of commercial areas adversely impacted by the loss of year- round residents. The corporation will increase the supply of affordable housing for sale to year-round residents, ensuring that it stays affordable in perpetuity and cannot be acquired by summer residents for seasonal use or vacation rentals. The corporation has acquired and will develop mixed- use residential/commercial properties for rental on affordable terms to residents and businesses on a year-round basis. This activity will increase the year-round population of people living and/or working in the village, address the need for affordable rental residential options, provide products and services to serve the year-round community and/or increase the consumerbase to support local businesses.

What it reported doing in 2025

Community revitalization - mount desert 365 (the corporation) engages in activities to promote community revitalization that is guided by the town's comprehensive plan's top three goals. The overall goal is to have more people living and/or working in the town on a year-round basis. We take a multiprong approach toward that goal with focuses on housing, business and nonprofit support, and community engagement. In 2025, our major effort was on creating and maintaining year-round housing. We designed and started the construction and sitework for two homes that will be sold in 2026 to year-round residents in perpetuity. We also had another six home development achieve final approval from the local planning board after a two year appeal process, so now development work can begin. Throughout 2025, we maintained three apartments leased out to year-round residents at affordable rental rates. In support of local businesses, we leased three commercial spaces at affordable rates, provided technical support to local small businesses, and helped create reasons for people to come to the commercial district, creating foot traffic for local businesses. Many of those opportunities were developed in coordination with other nonprofits by providing free meeting space for their events, meetings, classes or developing recreational spaces over the winter. These efforts attracted hundreds of people from a significant distance who would not otherwise travel here. Throughout 2025, we also leased land to college of the atlantic, where they housed students and staff, and another lot was leased to a year-round family in a shared-equity housing model, keeping that home affordable to the homeowners. The organization received revenue from the rental prpoerties that offsets, but does not fully cover, the costs of property taxes, insurance, management and maintenance.

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

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 80
  • Transparency & Controls: 66
  • Accountability: 84
  • Sustainability: 33
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 72.9%; rating input score 73
  • Fundraising efficiency: $0.34 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th 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: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -216.8%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 18.43; rating input score 95; 95th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.08; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 25.1%; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 10.4% per year; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -22% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 7.5% per year; rating input score 100; 54th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 72.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $455K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $157K · 11 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 2 contractors listed · $729K reported
  • Consistency: 27 of 27 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes executive pay
  • Filing history: 9 filing years from 2017 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • 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: Fundraising efficiency scored 4/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 1/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 14/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 24/100.