Santa Barbara Sea Shell Association

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
770031622
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2024–2025
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2023
Location
Santa Barbara, CA, USA
Rating
67
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Reported finances

Revenue
$40,946
Expenses
$50,400
Assets
$205,003
Liabilities
$5,266

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

Leadership & pay

2 people listed

People named in this filing

  • Denise Higgins (Commodore)
  • Michael Higgins (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-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

This organization operates solely for educational purposes: fostering healthy child development and strong family bonds by teaching developing and promoting youth sailing skills.

What it reported doing in 2025

Youth sailing program for families and children from April to October meeting every Sunday for sailing instruction and competitions.

Operating model

Revenue model
Membership-supported. 63% of the money available for current operations came from membership dues.
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 a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. A relatively small share of total spending goes to programs and revenue has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 61
  • Transparency & Controls: 82
  • Sustainability: 42
  • Growth: 40

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 67.5%; rating input score 67
  • Program expense ratio: 51.1%; rating input score 51

Transparency & Controls

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

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -23.1%; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.07; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 15.7% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -91.2% per year; rating input score 0; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -3.6% per year; rating input score 0; 27th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 67.5% of revenue deployed · 51.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $26K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 2 people listed
  • Consistency: 7 of 7 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 2 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 2 filing years from 2024 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.

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 51/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 20/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 21/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.
  • High — Grant Readiness: California registration: this organization is not authorized to operate as a charity in California.