Sail Orcas - a Sailing Education Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN: 912169349
IRS 990-EZ coverage: 2010–2025
Forms available: Form 990-EZ 2025
Location: Eastsound, WA, USA
Phone: 3603176427
Rating: 96
Verdict: STRONG
Rating confidence: Moderate
Sector: Swimming & Other Water Recreation

Reported finances

Revenue: $68,109
Expenses: $74,017
Assets: $45,872

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

BURKE THOMAS (PRESIDENT)

People named in this filing

ROBIN HIRSCH (DIRECTOR)
MATT BATTLES (DIRECTOR)
JAMES ROSSER (DIRECTOR)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Provide sailing and water safety education and awareness to residents of small, isolated island community located off the Washington state coast.

What it reported doing in 2025

Sail orcas provides sail training for adults and children. The children's program covers basic sailing and sail racing. The adult program consists of a 12 hour class for each student conducted over several days by qualified instructors.

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

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

Financial Efficiency: 100
Transparency & Controls: 100
Sustainability: 31
Growth: 80

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100

Transparency & Controls

Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100

Sustainability

Operating margin: -8.7%; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.62; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

Program expense growth: 4.8% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
Revenue growth: 3.7% per year; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings
Asset growth: -0.7% per year; rating input score 0; 35th percentile among comparable filings

Details

Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
Governance: Filed governance answers
Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $74K in reported program spending
Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 9 people listed
Consistency: 7 of 7 current checks pass
Schedules: 3 filed schedules
Filing history: 16 filing years from 2010 to 2025
Contacts: How to reach this organization
Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
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.

Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 30/100.
Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 36/100.
High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.