Ocean Alliance Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 222573677
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Location
- Gloucester, MA, USA
- Phone
- 9782812815
- Rating
- 82
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Research Institutes and/or Public Policy Analysis
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,840,750
- Expenses
- $1,202,183
- Assets
- $6,449,917
- Liabilities
- $192,539
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Iain Kerr (CEO)
- Laura Engleby (President)
Highest reported compensation
- Iain Kerr (CEO): $152,690 total reported compensation
- Mark Hayes (CFO): $35,745 total reported compensation
- Laura Engleby (President): $24,000 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Scientific Research on marine mammals and education
What it reported doing in 2024
SnotBot and Drones for Whale Research- conduct ongiong, targeted research expeditions focused on whales and ocean pollution through the development and application of tools such as SnotBot, EarBot, and FlirBot
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 77% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 83% 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
STRONG - 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: 70
- Transparency & Controls: 94
- Accountability: 87
- Sustainability: 75
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 58%; rating input score 58
- Program expense ratio: 88.1%; rating input score 88
- Fundraising efficiency: $35.72 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 85.7%; rating input score 86; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- 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: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 34.7%; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 5.37; rating input score 85; 85th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 17.7%; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 5.1% per year; rating input score 100; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 3.5% per year; rating input score 100; 34th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 2.9% per year; rating input score 100; 29th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 58% of revenue deployed · 88.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 6 of 7 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $1.1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $153K · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 31 of 31 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 16 filing years from 2009 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 4 filed money-flow records
- 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.
- 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.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 58/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Audit committee oversight not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 18/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 58/100.