Visit Issaquah

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
831461089
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2022
Location
Issaquah, WA, USA
Rating
75
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Government and Public Administration

Reported finances

Revenue
$282,244
Expenses
$339,820
Assets
$45,233
Liabilities
$1,028

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

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Christina Garrard (Executive Director)
  • Kimberly Kapustein (Executive Director)

Highest reported compensation

  • Christina Garrard (Executive Director): $90,956 total reported compensation
  • Kimberly Kapustein (Executive Director): $28,750 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Organized and operated exclusively to increase the tax revenue of the City of Issaquah by improving the business conditions for retail, meetings, hospitality, recreation, lodging, and activities, thereby alleviating fiscal and personnel burdens of the local government.

What it reported doing in 2025

Visit Issaquah serves as the City of Issaquahs official destination marketing organization and strives to increase tax revenue and tourism in the region by marketing Issaquah as a destination for tourism and marketing Issaquahs businesses, amenities, attractions and events. Visit Issaquah provides representatives on various committees and commissions providing a voice of the hospitality and tourism industry businesses in the City of Issaquah, including the economic vitality commission, creative arts district committee, and vision partners committee. Our activity began in 2018 and occurs locally, regionally and nationally.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 81% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
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 - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 88
  • Transparency & Controls: 71
  • Accountability: 79
  • Sustainability: 13
  • Growth: 40

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 97.8%; rating input score 98
  • Program expense ratio: 81.2%; rating input score 81
  • Fundraising efficiency: $21.81 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Missing
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 81st 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • 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: -20.4%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.13; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 35.2%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 32.7% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -3.5% per year; rating input score 0; 11th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -1% per year; rating input score 0; 19th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 97.8% of revenue deployed · 81.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $276K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $91K · 8 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 26 of 26 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2020 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 4 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • 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 — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 11/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 57/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 9/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 8/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 33/100.