Whatcom Rowing Association
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 275010587
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2013–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2012
- Location
- Bellingham, WA, USA
- Phone
- 3605432517
- Rating
- 90
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Amateur Sports
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $191,790
- Expenses
- $157,396
- Assets
- $252,511
- Liabilities
- $14,264
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Lisa Kaufman (Co-President)
- Jeremy Beck (Co-President)
- Kate Baehr (Vice President)
- Paulette Bergh (Past President)
People named in this filing
- Lisa Kaufman (Co-President)
- Jeremy Beck (Co-President)
- Kate Baehr (Vice 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
Whatcom Rowing Association is a volunteer led community organization providing youth and adults with the skills, joys, fitness, teamwork and camaraderie of the sport of rowing. WRA offers recreational and competitive opportunities for the entire community surrounding Whatcom County from middle school age children to senior citizens through the lifelong sport of rowing.
What it reported doing in 2025
Participants range in age for 12 years to 86 years with novice and experienced rowers sharing equipment, classes and resources out of the Bob Diehl Boathouse at Bloedel Donovan Park. The Association's membership continues to grow with over 150 individuals on the active roster in Junior and Masters Programs. During 2025, WRA is taking on it's first advertising and promotion campaign utilizing Whatcom Transit buses with the goal to increase reach to all areas of the county, specifically through the Summer Junior program that will resume in June. WRA continues to introduce hundreds of middle school students to the sport of rowing through the Erg Education program, which is a partnership with the Bellingham School District and provides a platform for WRA and trained staff to teach rowing as a 2-week unit in the PE curriculum. The Junior program remained strong despite a coaching and leadership turnover in 2024 with a solid core of returning students as well as new athletes. WRA shifted to a fully volunteer led structure for 2025 upon the transition of the prior Director into a collegiate coaching role, and after some growing pains, is well on target to see growth in participation, membership, reach into the community in 2025.
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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Liabilities are high compared with assets.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 83
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 64
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 76.6%; rating input score 77
- Program expense ratio: 92.9%; rating input score 93
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 17.9%; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.6; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.06; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 12% per year; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 2.5% per year; rating input score 100; 30th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 1.3% per year; rating input score 100; 30th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 76.6% of revenue deployed · 92.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $146K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 11 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules
- Filing history: 13 filing years from 2013 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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 — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 25/100.