South River-Merrimon Fire & EMS Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 561405441
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Aug 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Beaufort, NC, USA
- Phone
- 2527282240
- Rating
- 70
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $177,356
- Expenses
- $185,087
- Assets
- $1,085,241
- Liabilities
- $877
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- Jeffrey Cahoon (Chairman of Board/Treasurer): $6,020 total reported compensation
- Randy Feagle (Chief/Board Member): $4,750 total reported compensation
- Bill Casey (Board Member): $3,760 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To provide both emergency and non-emergency medical services and fire fighting services to individuals living and visiting within the community 24 hours a day.
What it reported doing in 2025
The organization answered 44 emergency and non-emergency medical aid and fire service calls to individuals living in and visiting the South River - Merrimon area between July 1, 2025 - June 30, 2026.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 98% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- 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 - 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 a relatively small share of voting board members are independent.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 88
- Transparency & Controls: 90
- Accountability: 30
- Sustainability: 46
- Growth: 0
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 96%; rating input score 96
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th 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: 42.9%; rating input score 43; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 1 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 12
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Limited
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -4.4%; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 5.86; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 9.8%; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -1% per year; rating input score 0; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -1.5% per year; rating input score 0; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -0.1% per year; rating input score 0; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 2 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 96% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 3 of 7 board members independent · 1 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $178K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $6K · 10 people listed
- Consistency: 22 of 22 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2011 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 7 filed money-flow records
- 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: 6 of 7 not reported.
- Moderate — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 43/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 26/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 27/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 51/100.