Salt Ponds Coalition Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
050449131
IRS 990 coverage
2025–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2024
Location
Charlestown, RI, USA
Phone
4013223068
Rating
82
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Water Resource, Wetlands Conservation and Management

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$203,207
Expenses
$223,585
Assets
$300,098
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

16 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Richard Sartor (Vice President)
  • Art Ganz (President)

People named in this filing

  • Richard Sartor (Vice President)
  • Ann Whaley-Tobin (Secretary)
  • Marshall Mugge (Treasurer)

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

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

Overview

Mission

Salt Ponds Coalition's mission is to protect and enhance the health of Rhode Island's salt ponds for the benefit of wildlife and people. In operation since 1985, we are the oldest continually operating volunteer marine water-quality monitoring program in the nation. We partner with environmental non-profits and municipal, state, and federal agencies to complete restoration projects and advocate for healthy pond ecosystems. Our programs are designed to educate people of all ages about the importance of this vital resource and inspire them to become stewards of Rhode Island's salt ponds.

What it reported doing in 2025

Education and Outreach: SPC works to connect people of all ages to their local environment and specifically the salt ponds by hosting field trips for local schools and other outreach activities. In Spring 2025, SPC hosted various age groups from pre-school up through middle-school students from multiple schools on pond-side outdoor activities as well as at a local nature center. Additionally, throughout the summer SPC worked with children at various summer camps providing outdoor educational programing, as well as our own free and open to the public Salt Pond Safaris which is a catch and release education program for geared to engage children and their families. Finally, we provide programming for adults as well in the form of paddle trips, bird walks, an art-focused program, and presentations from local experts in regards to salt pond issues and improvements, water-quality, and birding. In addition to these education programs, we hosted a beach clean-up, and had outreach tables at multiple farmer's markets, town-sponsored events, neighborhood meetings, and events hosted by our local indigenous tribe. All of our events last year reached out to over 750 people. Much of this work is completed with the help of volunteer retired educators. Additionally, we print and distribute education materials on our website, social media platforms, email blasts, and through printed media. Our distribution list for our emails alone is over 600 households and our social media channels have a combined 3,000+ followers.

Operating model

Revenue model
Membership-supported. 77% of the money available for current operations came from membership dues.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 80% 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 - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 89
  • Transparency & Controls: 86
  • Accountability: 76
  • Sustainability: 40
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 20th 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 3 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 43
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • 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: -10%; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.34; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: 4.4% per year; rating input score 100; 44th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 0.4% per year; rating input score 100; 24th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 16 of 16 board members independent · 3 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $224K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 16 people listed
  • Consistency: 40 of 41 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • 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.

  • Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 6 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 19/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 49/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.