Worcester Business Development Corp

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
042381829
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Worcester, MA, USA
Phone
5087557883
Rating
73
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,756,667
Expenses
$1,771,782
Assets
$19,742,873
Liabilities
$933,216

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

Leadership & pay

27 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • CRAIG L BLAIS (PRESIDENT &)

Highest reported compensation

  • CRAIG L BLAIS (PRESIDENT &): $441,126 total reported compensation
  • ROBERTA L BRIEN (VP OF PROJEC): $352,216 total reported compensation
  • KATHLEEN KELLEHER CPA MST (CFO): $254,436 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

The worcester business development corporation (wbdc) is a private, non- profit business organization with a public purpose mission to serve as an innovation and leading force in the economic development of the city of worcester and the region, resulting in job creation and tax base expansion.

What it reported doing in 2025

Promotion of business development in the greater worcester region. Wbdc also acquires land for development to benefit the community including redevelopment of brownfield sites.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 74% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
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

SUPPORTED - 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 program spending has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 77
  • Transparency & Controls: 73
  • Accountability: 84
  • Sustainability: 46
  • Growth: 20

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 86.2%; rating input score 86
  • Program expense ratio: 87.7%; rating input score 88
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 22nd 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: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 96%; rating input score 96; 28th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 6 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 67
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -0.9%; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 11.14; rating input score 92; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 59.1%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -0.2% per year; rating input score 0; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -3.6% per year; rating input score 0; 5th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 3.6% per year; rating input score 100; 29th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 86.2% of revenue deployed · 87.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 24 of 25 board members independent · 6 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $1.6M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $441K · 27 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 33 of 33 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes executive pay and related organizations
  • Filing history: 16 filing years from 2010 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 2 filed related-organization links
  • 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.

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 9 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 28/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 1/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 44/100.
  • High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.