Waterfront Rescue Mission Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
590838106
IRS 990 coverage
2014–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Pensacola, FL, USA
Phone
8504784027
Rating
79
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Homeless Shelters
Affiliation
Christianity

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$17,701,829
Expenses
$15,309,232
Assets
$31,012,665
Liabilities
$2,750,684

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

Leadership & pay

13 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • CLAY ROMANO (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • CLAY ROMANO (PRESIDENT): $215,398 total reported compensation
  • ANDREW BRANTLEY (CFO): $128,864 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Demonstrating god's goodness by providing rescue and recovery services in jesus' name.

What it reported doing in 2025

Founded in 1949, waterfront rescue mission provides rehabilitative services to underserved people and those suffering from substance abuse and other life-dominating issues. In 2025, the mission served 210,590 meals, provided 84,588 nights of shelter, distributed over 4,500 pieces of clothing, and 2,500 household items to families in need. Waterfront rescue mission helps men and women address the challenges of life-dominating issues. Healing and restoration are the goals of this bible-based model that promotes transformed, productive members of the community. Through the lifebuilder recovery program, the mission helps men overcome lifedominating addictions through the faith-based addiction recovery curriculum, the genesis process, as well as through intensive counseling, job training, financial literacy classes, and housing assistance to ensure participants are equipped to become and remain productive members of society. The mission's veterans care program serves homeless militaryveterans by coordinating with the u.s. Department of veterans affairs to provide guidance in obtaining benefits and affordable housing. The mission's arukah respite center offers a safe environment with medical beds for ill or injured homeless men and women to recuperate immediately following a hospital discharge. The mission's day resource center provides services to help underserved men, women, and children with mail and phone services, bag storage, clothing and hygiene items, spiritual counseling, meals, and laundering and shower provisions. Through the mission's various sites and programs, men and women have the opportunity to learn valuable work skills such as forklift certification, merchandising, production, register training, customer services, and cooking. The ultimate goal of waterfront rescue mission is to provide a hand up, and not just a hand out, to men and women suffering from life-dominating issues.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 93% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
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.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 72
  • Transparency & Controls: 74
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 64
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 74.2%; rating input score 74
  • Program expense ratio: 81.1%; rating input score 81
  • Fundraising efficiency: $12.2 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • 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: 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: 13.5%; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.03; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.09; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 2.2%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 1.9% per year; rating input score 100; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 4.4% per year; rating input score 100; 35th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 5.3% per year; rating input score 100; 36th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 74.2% of revenue deployed · 81.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $12.4M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $215K · 13 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 38 of 38 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 12 filing years from 2014 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 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.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 39/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 52/100.