Oyster River Ecology Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 884362329
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2024–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2023
- Location
- Wimauma, FL, USA
- Phone
- 9415678738
- Rating
- 71
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Single Organization Support
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $502,724
- Expenses
- $335,063
- Assets
- $499,469
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- DAMON MOORE (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- DAMON MOORE (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $120,900 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Serving manatee, sarasota, hillsborough, & pinellas counties on Florida's gulf coast, oyster river ecology's mission is to restore ecosystems and preserve ecological functions while increasing the understanding of the natural systems on which we all rely. Ore is a results-focused 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization of ecologists, restoration practitioners, and environmental educators. We are dedicated to the habitat restoration, stewardship, beautification, and understanding of the environment to benefit quality of life for humans and wildlife alike, both now and for generations to come.
What it reported doing in 2025
Ore's watershed habitat restoration program encompasses ecological restoration of all other habitats outside of our oyster restoration program. With a deep knowledge of ecological restoration techniques and a project portfolio full of regionally significant restoration projects including robinson preserve, perico preserve, tom bennet park, ungarelli preserve and more, ore's executive director (and several of ore's board of directors) has the technical knowledge and real-world experience to design and implement successful restoration projects through the watershed. Ore's projects under this program to date have focused on as this program matures, we intend to implement large-scale upland restoration projects that include full scale groundcover restoration of highly diverse native ecosystems like pine flatwoods and scrub. We are also deeply experienced designing and implementing freshwater wetland restoration projects which will become a larger part of our project portfolio as we grow.
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 - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. 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: 54
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 67
- Sustainability: 67
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 52%; rating input score 52
- Program expense ratio: 76.3%; rating input score 76
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
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: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 87.5%; rating input score 88; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 33.4%; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.49; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 36.1%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 65.6% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 40.2% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 72.2% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 52% of revenue deployed · 76.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 7 of 8 board members independent · 3 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $256K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $121K · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 23 of 23 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 2 filing years from 2024 to 2025
- 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 52/100.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 7 not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 55/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 5/100.