Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 943140165
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Bellingham, WA, USA
- Phone
- 3607150283
- Rating
- 79
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Fisheries Resources
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $3,551,878
- Expenses
- $2,498,277
- Assets
- $6,752,108
- Liabilities
- $298,086
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
16 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- ROSE ANNE FEATHERSTON (PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- RACHEL VASAK (EXECUTIVE DI): $139,429 total reported compensation
- KATHERINE UNDERWOOD (FINANCE DIRE): $90,225 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Community based nonprofit organization strives to recover salmon by engaging our community in restoration, education, and stewardship.
What it reported doing in 2024
Stewardship: nsea is a community-based organization and strives to engage community members in salmon recovery. Volunteers support many different programs throughout the year and help a small core staff accomplish far more than would otherwise be possible. Community volunteers are central to the mission of involving the community in salmon recovery. In 2024, 4,422 hours were donated by 1,474 community volunteers to restore about 21.75 acres of riparian habitat. Interns and students from western Washington university, bellingham technical college, whatcom community college, and northwest indian college provide critical support to nseas programs including education, monitoring, and stewardship. Summer and fall of 2024 brought increased opportunities for nsea staff and interns to do outreach: nseas summer river stewards program led guided river walks along the nooksack river and hosted outreach events. During the fall, we hosted 14 salmon sighting events along several creeks, engaging over 930 people. These events provided an opportunity for community members to learn about salmon, salmon habitat, and how we, as individuals and as a community, can support salmon recovery.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 65% 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of total spending goes to programs. 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: 63
- Transparency & Controls: 87
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 73
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 54.2%; rating input score 54
- Program expense ratio: 74.3%; rating input score 74
- Fundraising efficiency: $52.95 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 94.1%; rating input score 94; 23rd 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: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
- 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: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 29.7%; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.7; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 9.2%; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 7.5% per year; rating input score 100; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 6.6% per year; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 8.6% per year; rating input score 100; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 54.2% of revenue deployed · 74.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 14 of 14 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $1.9M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $139K · 16 people listed
- Consistency: 29 of 30 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 54/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 33/100.