Mystic Seaport Museum Inc

What it reported doing in 2024

Collections & research - mystic seaport museum's collection contains more than 2 million items spanning the eighteenth through twenty-first centuries, including watercraft, historic buildings, photographs and film, art, tools, and artifacts. The watercraft collection is the largest in the world with more than 560 vessels, including four national historic landmarks. The henry b. Dupont preservation shipyard cares for these vessels, while the curatorial department acquires, researches, documents, restores, and conserves items for the collection. The museum's collection are housed in a state of the art facility, the collections research center, which serves students, members, staff, and outside scholars.the museum's collection includes 560 watercraft (including 5 major vessels), 24 historic houses and buildings, 2000 ship models, 1100 scrimshaw pieces, 5000 video tapes, 1,500,000 feet of historic film and a collection of more than 1,000,000 photographs, as well as significant collections of prints, navigational instruments, tools, marine paintings and other maritime memorabilia. In addition, the collection contains large quantities of nonnautical furnishings for the historic buildings, as well as ship and boat parts, engines, and similar objects. The museum's library collection contains approximately 75,000 books and periodicals, 1,000,000 manuscripts, 10,000 maps, well over 100,000 ship plans, 2,000 rolls of microfilm, and 600 oral history tapes.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 65%; rating input score 65
• Program expense ratio: 57%; rating input score 57
• Fundraising efficiency: $6.62 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd 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: 99.7%; rating input score 100; 36th percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 97.1%; rating input score 97; 31st 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: 2.6%; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.63; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.1; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 6.5%; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 0.1% per year; rating input score 100; 11th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 2.4% per year; rating input score 100; 21st percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 1.9% per year; rating input score 100; 17th percentile among comparable filings