The Mariners' Museum

What it reported doing in 2024

One of the two operational tenets of the "collections-based" prong of our strategy is "research, or "building the body of knowledge" about the mariners' museum's vast maritime archival collection (an estimated 2 million archival pieces), maritime library (over 100,000 volumes), maritime art collection (thousands of paintings and works on paper), and maritime artifact collection, and about the "living collection" the forest, lake, and wildlife within mariners' park. In 2024, our conservation research scientist, in collaboration with a conservation science fellow, further refined an approach to capture and/or mitigate the effects of sulphur trapped in waterlogged archaeological wood. This problem, untreated, manifests itself in the development of sulfuric acid when formerly waterlogged archaeological wood that is dried and displayed - a particularly thorny problem for recovered and conserved historic shipwrecks globally. Our archival team and curatorial team improved the cataloging of significant portions of our archive, photographic, and artifact collections, with a particular emphasis on capturing the human stories that live within these collection items. We regularly host partner researchers from higher education institutions and other types of institutions within the mariners' park, and in 2024 established, for the first time, a formal research liaison and manager to support this type of research in the living collection and begin designing a system for aggregating and disseminating that research.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 91.4%; rating input score 91
• Program expense ratio: 81.2%; rating input score 81
• Fundraising efficiency: $6.55 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
  • Compensation committee: Missing
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
  • Written employment contract: Pass
  • Compensation survey or study: Pass
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • 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: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 13%; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 12.39; rating input score 93; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.06; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 5.4%; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 1.1% per year; rating input score 100; 15th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 4.2% per year; rating input score 100; 36th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 0.6% per year; rating input score 100; 12th percentile among comparable filings