Southwest Association of Rail Shippers

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
760131531
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Spring, TX, USA
Phone
4258288240
Rating
73
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Chambers of Commerce & Business Leagues

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,576,593
Expenses
$1,205,267
Assets
$2,504,367
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

20 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • GAIL MOLEK (PAST PRESIDENT)
  • LORY WHITLEY (PRESIDENT)
  • BRUCE MANN (VICE PRESIDENT)

People named in this filing

  • STEPHANE KYLER (DIRECTOR)
  • ROGER PEDERSON (DIRECTOR)
  • DERRY FALLIGANT (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

A professional, educational association dedicated to educate and inform railroad transportation shippers and receivers. Rail companies, railcar builders, rail vendors and 3rd party companies meet to discuss these changes and how all can improve service communications and other issues related to rail shipping. At our meetings we also provide rail educational seminars for those new to the industry.

What it reported doing in 2025

The swar annual conference was held in dallas tx, march 18-19th 2025. The title of the conference was "tracks of transition". We held a rail 201 training class, a tradeshow. We also had a gold outing, clay shoot and a mixology class with all proceeds going to our scholarship fund. We had 60 companies participating in our tradeshow.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 100% 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 - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 61
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 64
  • Sustainability: 74
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 61.4%; rating input score 61
  • Program expense ratio: 80.3%; rating input score 80
  • Fundraising efficiency: $0 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings

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: 1 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 14
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • 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: 23.6%; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.08; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 3.9% per year; rating input score 100; 31st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 20.2% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 24.4% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 61.4% of revenue deployed · 80.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 20 of 20 board members independent · 1 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $976K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 20 people listed
  • Consistency: 17 of 17 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 1 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2020 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: 5 of 6 not reported.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 1/100.