Timber Heritage Association

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
942388203
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Eureka, CA, USA
Phone
7074432957
Rating
75
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$117,689
Expenses
$120,664
Assets
$1,198,837
Liabilities
$0

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

11 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • SEAN MITCHELL (President)
  • JACOB COWAN (Vice President)

People named in this filing

  • SEAN MITCHELL (President)
  • PETE JOHNSTON (Director)
  • SARAH LEGAR (Secretary)

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 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The mission of the timber heritage association is to preserve, interpret and celebrate timber history. Our vision is an exciting, interactive, engaging, timber heritage museum in an 1893 lumber company shop complex to tell the story of the men and women of the logging and lumber manufacturing industry who built, worked and lived this unique part of history. As a part of the museum a steam-powered excursion trin will operate around humboldt bay using locomotives from the museum collection.

What it reported doing in 2024

Preserve, restore, maintain, interpret artifacts and historic buildings (1893 lumber company locomotive roundhouse and shop complex). After a targeted brownfield assessment, an environmental clean-up of lead based paint and other problems has begun. The effort is managed and partially financed by the timber heritage association, but it has an environmental protection agency grant and loan for environmental clean-up of the 7 acre property site.education: quarterly "whistle punk" newsletter containing news and historicial articles mailed and distributed to members and individuals in the community at large and libraries. Living history displays, demonstrations, presentations and tours are done. A number of tours were given. The heritage association provides demonstrations, fund-raising rides in historic logging railroad crew cars on several miles of historic railroad track. It is developing an excursion train, has had a professional feasibility study for what will be fund-raising rides using historic logging railroad locomotives and historic passenger car equipment.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
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. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 95
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 12
  • Sustainability: 59
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 95.7%; rating input score 96
  • Program expense ratio: 92.7%; rating input score 93
  • Fundraising efficiency: $500.48 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 96; 96th 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: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 0%; rating input score 0; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 2 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 29
    • 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: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -2.5%; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 9.94; rating input score 89; 89th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 16.8% per year; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 0.6% per year; rating input score 100; 26th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 2.8% per year; rating input score 100; 37th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 95.7% of revenue deployed · 92.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 0 of 11 board members independent · 2 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $112K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 11 people listed
  • Consistency: 22 of 22 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 to 2024
  • 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.

  • High — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 0/100.
  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 6 not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 33/100.