Princeton-Blairstown Center Inc

What it reported doing in 2025

The Princeton-Blairstown Center is a 118-year-old award-winning outdoor education center that provides equitable access to exceptional outdoor experiences for young people, primarily from historically marginalized communities. Highly trained facilitators teach 21st Century skills while students experience the transformative power of nature.Blairstown Campus ProgramsDuring a typical year, groups of students and their chaperones come from across the Mid-Atlantic region to stay at PBCs 268-acre Blairstown Campus in the northwest corner of New Jersey near the Delaware Water Gap for one to five days. These students come from public schools, independent schools, universities, and community-based organizations. Most of these organizations provide services to students from historically marginalized communities which face numerous challenges such as poverty, low-performing schools, high-crime neighborhoods, food insecurity, single adult households, court-involved youth, or youth in foster care. The Blairstown Campus serves as an extension of their school or community organization a place where they can practice critical 21st Century skills that can be taken back to their schools, families, and communities. These trips are organized by the administration or faculty of the visiting school or organization expressly for the purpose of obtaining instruction in non-cognitive skills using PBCs social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum. The SEL skills that PBC teaches can include verbal and non-verbal communication, leadership, cooperation, team building, problem solving, healthy risk-taking, empathy, and interpersonal skills; each group coordinator determines which skills should be the focus of their PBC program. During their time at PBC, students spend most of the day engaged in hands-on instructional activities, with time for meals, sleep, and personal reflection/journal writing. In 2025, the Center served 5,988 students, chaperones, and families for day, extended day, and overnight programming.Summer Bridge ProgramPBCs Summer Bridge Program is a one-week academic enrichment and leadership program, provided free of charge to students from low-income communities in Newark and Trenton, New Jersey. The program helps students lessen summer learning loss, build social-emotional skills, and form positive, supportive relationships with peers and adults. The program takes place at PBCs Blairstown Campus and is an opportunity for students to make the developmental break from elementary or middle school. Small groups of students spend approximately three hours a day engaged in hands-on literacy, STEM, and STEAM activities; an hour a day engaged in waterfront activities (swimming/canoeing/ kayaking); and two hours a day engaged in developing leadership, teambuilding, and problem-solving skills. Each day students take part in a student choice activity that includes recreational and STEAM activities as well as daily restoration duties (stewardship of their cabins, the dining room, and the wash houses). During the summer of 2025, 212 students and 47 leaders/chaperones were served by the Summer Bridge Program. In addition, PBC held its Leader-in-Training Program that served eight students for a total of six weeks.Venture Out ProgramVenture Out is PBCs new environmental education initiative. This high-quality outdoor education program, offered free to middle school students in the Trenton Public School District, is a 30-hour residential program that provides students with inquiry-based, hands-on environmental education and social-emotional learning sessions that aim to help students engage more deeply with science and the scientific method, understand that science is fun, an increased appreciation and respect for the natural world, and a desire to protect the environment. The Centers curriculum is aligned to the State of New Jerseys middle school science curriculum standards. This program is led by experienced Sr. Facilitators who have been carefully trai

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
• Program expense ratio: 77.8%; rating input score 78
• Fundraising efficiency: $2.95 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
  • Compensation committee: Pass
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
  • Written employment contract: Missing
  • Compensation survey or study: Pass
  • 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: -40.4%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 16.63; rating input score 92; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 20.6%; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 4.4% per year; rating input score 100; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 10.1% per year; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 4.5% per year; rating input score 100; 30th percentile among comparable filings