South Sound Estuary Association
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 392076160
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2021–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2013
- Location
- Olympia, WA, USA
- Phone
- 3609188412
- Rating
- 62
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Water Resource, Wetlands Conservation and Management
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $474,642
- Expenses
- $650,354
- Assets
- $123,808
- Liabilities
- $5,408
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
14 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Hap Clemons (Executive Director)
- Sandy Zeiner (President)
- Noah Kalb (Vice-President)
Highest reported compensation
- Hap Clemons (Executive Director): $59,339 total reported compensation
- Kylie Rench (Commications & Development Coordinator): $44,681 total reported compensation
- Clarissa Felling (Program and Volunteer Coordinator): $43,400 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Environmental education with a marine/estuary focus to inspire people of all ages to protect Puget Sound. In 2025. 10,031 K-12 students and 79,363 adults took part in an environmental education opportunity focused on marine and estuary subjects.
What it reported doing in 2025
Marine/estuary education and outreach to the general public. Staff and volunteer docents provide: intertidal marine life interpretation at local beaches during weekend summer low-tides; underwater viewing of marine life at night from a local pier; interpretative walks of downtown Olympia's historic shoreline, focusing on the cultural and industrial history; lead bird walks to identify the birds that live near and depend on a healthy Puget Sound; robotic exploration of under sea life
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 64% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 91% 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 most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 27
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 10
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 29.4%; rating input score 29
- Program expense ratio: 21.5%; rating input score 21
- Fundraising efficiency: $7.67 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
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: 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: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -37%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.19; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 34%; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 12.4% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 20.3% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -4.3% per year; rating input score 0; 10th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 29.4% of revenue deployed · 21.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $140K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $59K · 14 people listed
- Consistency: 19 of 20 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2021 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 5 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 29/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 21/100.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 31/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 6/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 11/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 9/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 28/100.