Wayland Historical Society Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
046112780
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2018
Location
Wayland, MA, USA
Phone
5083587959
Rating
83
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$148,300
Expenses
$98,500
Assets
$1,294,200
Liabilities
$700

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

Leadership & pay

13 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Bryant Sherry Anne (President)
  • LaFarge Vicki (Vice President)
  • Hoey Scarlett (Executive Director)

Highest reported compensation

  • Hoey Scarlett (Executive Director): $40,100 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Study, collect and preserve the history of Wayland, Massachusetts and its people: to preserve the building and the artifacts owned by the Society, and to disseminate information to promote the traditions and history or Wayland.

What it reported doing in 2025

Maintain the Grout-Heard House Museum, a circa 1740 two and one half story colonial house. Collections are housed in the nine room former dwelling. Exhibition rooms are open to the public for tours and are furnished with artifacts from the 18th & 19th centuries, during which time the house was occupied by the Grout and Heard families. Artifacts include furniture, art work, china, glass and other items. The Museum also maintains collections of photgraphs, maps, books, audio recordings and other types of documents that are available to researchers who visit the museum as well as online through Digital Commonwealth, a Massachusetts-wide consortium.

Operating model

Revenue model
Investment-supported. 68% of the money available for current operations came from recurring investment income.
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

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 86
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 63
  • Sustainability: 73
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 89.6%; rating input score 90
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

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: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 1 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 12
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • 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: 33.6%; rating input score 83; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 13.14; rating input score 92; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 40.7%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 29.7% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 12.3% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 2.6% per year; rating input score 100; 33rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 89.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 1 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $88K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $40K · 13 people listed
  • Consistency: 20 of 20 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2020 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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: 6 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 6/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 52/100.