San Luis Obispo Railroad Museum

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
770277323
IRS 990 coverage
2016–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
San Luis Obispo, CA, USA
Phone
8055481894
Rating
80
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$80,752
Expenses
$64,700
Assets
$1,074,372
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

11 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • MIKE BURRELL (DIRECTOR-VICE PRESIDENT)
  • BRAD LA ROSE (PRESIDENT-DIRCTOR)

People named in this filing

  • PETER BRAZIL (DIRECTOR)
  • STEPHEN CAKE (DIRECTOR)
  • GREG JACKSON (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. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The san luis obispo railroad museum is a non-profit educational institution founded to preserve and present the railroad history of California and specifically the central coast. Collecting, restoring, and displaying relevant railroad artificats, photographs and documents are its goals. This effort is supplemented by creating models, displays and graphics as well as operating historic railroad equipment to facilitate a better understanding of how railroads have affected our area's social cultural and ecomonic history.

What it reported doing in 2025

The museum is open every saturday for the education and benefit of the communtiy. The museum has displays of central coast railroading and a model railroad depicting the area around the middle of the 20th century. There also is out pullman dining car and southern pacific railroad caboose open everey saturday. The museum also publishes a newletter called the "coast mail" , quarterly on line news updates called "from the freight house" twitter, facebook and a website.

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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and revenue has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 81
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 70
  • Sustainability: 70
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 86.4%; rating input score 86
  • Program expense ratio: 98.7%; rating input score 99
  • 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: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 2 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 29
    • 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: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 19.9%; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 16.61; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 4% per year; rating input score 100; 61st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -7.4% per year; rating input score 0; 35th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 4.2% per year; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 86.4% of revenue deployed · 98.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 2 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $64K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 11 people listed
  • Consistency: 15 of 15 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 10 filing years from 2016 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 6 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 58/100.