I have been a volunteer with HMSRTO for the past couple of years.
In this time I have been dissapointed over and over again.
HMSRTO consists of a board made of a group of women who are highly disorganised and secretive.They do not disclose anything related to the organisation, its plans, its strategies other than to board members or people they consider "close". They do not care, reward or cater in any way for all those volunteers who are at the beach constantly.They do not train volunteers, inform them of protocols or even safety/liability issues.
Although they get a substantial grant from NOAA and other donations, they do not produce anything. HMSRTO get all the material from NOAA and do not give any of that to any of the volunteers. It is up to the volunteers to figure out how to do things and how to do outreach. You will rarely see any of the board members at the beach, doing the harsh tasks.You will see them though at events with NOAA or places with press.
Although they declare in their 990 Form 200 volunteers, the truth is they can only hold that amount of people during pupping events (2 months a year) and the rest of the year there are 15 volunteers if lucky. Those volunteers that do not enter the "club" of the Board members, are demeaned and ignored. They lie about their achievements to NOAA in order to justify the grant received.
As a summary, do not become a volunteer for HMSRTO or invest in them. This is a private club not an NGO.
Review from Guidestar