ONeill Sea Odyssey
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 770464784
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2017–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Santa Cruz, CA, USA
- Phone
- 8314751561
- Rating
- 76
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Natural Resources Conservation and Protection
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,016,447
- Expenses
- $1,239,730
- Assets
- $5,308,479
- Liabilities
- $630,134
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Tim O'Neill (President)
Highest reported compensation
- Tracey Weiss (Exec. Director): $156,678 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Org's Mission: (i) to promote awareness of the Monterey Bay eco-systems and its adjoining areas; (ii) to conduct educational field trips; (iii) to instill in youth and adults a desire to perform community service to improve and preserve the ecology of the ocean environment.
What it reported doing in 2024
The corporation is formed for the following purposes: (i) to generally promote and foster local, national and international awareness of the eco-systems of the Monterey Bay and its adjoining areas; (ii) to promote, organize, manage and conduct educational field trips to promote such awareness; (iii) to encourage and instill in youth and adults a desire to perform community service aimed at improving and preserving the ecology of the ocean environment.During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025, in order to keep an accurate count of each presentation offered, OSO staff recorded each scheduled class given on a google spreadsheet. Some teachers only participated in one, one-hour distance learning program, while other teachers participated in multiple one-hour distance learning programs. For the sake of recording our work accurately, one program is equal to one class of students. The total number of students is counted by keeping track of the number of students participating in each one-hour distance learning program. Some students received only one hour of instruction, while others received up to 10 hours of instruction from OSO staff. Total count of students tallied in this way was participating in separate programs. Form 990, Part III, Line 4aIncluded under Program expenses is the following: Total Program Costs $993,396
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 78% 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.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and most voting board members are independent. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 85
- Transparency & Controls: 62
- Accountability: 94
- Sustainability: 36
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 80.1%; rating input score 80
- Fundraising efficiency: $7.65 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 85.7%; rating input score 86; 2nd 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: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 90%; rating input score 90; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- 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: -22%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.28; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.12; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 12.6%; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 9.9% per year; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -3.6% per year; rating input score 0; 7th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 3.4% per year; rating input score 100; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 80.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 9 of 10 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $993K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $157K · 10 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 20 of 22 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 8 filing years from 2017 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.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 29/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 8/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part IX AllOtherExpenses column sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 29/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 40/100.