Whale Trail
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 273093674
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2011–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2017
- Location
- Seattle, WA, USA
- Rating
- 80
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Wildlife Preservation, Protection
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $50,598
- Expenses
- $46,745
- Assets
- $8,532
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
4 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Karen Sinclair (President)
- Donna Sandstrom (Executive Director)
People named in this filing
- Kristina Cooper (Treasurer)
- Margaret Cummings (Secretary)
- Karen Sinclair (President)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The Whale Trail is a series of places to view orcas and other marine mammals from shore. Our mission is to promote awareness of and stewardship for marine mammals and their habitat. We accomplish our mission through our sites signs and programs. Our overarching goal is to recover the endangered southern resident orcas from the threat of extinction.
What it reported doing in 2025
Education and Community Outreach - See Schedule O
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% 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.
The verdict
STRONG - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Program spending has declined or grown slowly and revenue has declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 77
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 32
- Growth: 0
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 75%; rating input score 75
- Program expense ratio: 81.2%; rating input score 81
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 7.6%; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.18; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 75.5%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -2.7% per year; rating input score 0; 40th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -1.5% per year; rating input score 0; 44th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -6.8% per year; rating input score 0; 21st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 75% of revenue deployed · 81.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $38K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 4 people listed
- Consistency: 7 of 7 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 11 filing years from 2011 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 — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 17/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 57/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 1/100.