BlackRain
Sector note
Seven Connecticut chambers,
side by side
Every figure on this page is taken from a filed IRS Form 990, public record through ProPublica. Nothing here is estimated, modeled or projected. Where a number could not be verified, it is left blank and said so.
01
The first thing the filings say
The only one that finished ahead is also the largest.
Running a deficit at this size is what the model produces. It is not a verdict on how any one chamber is run. Every organization below roughly $600,000 in revenue in this set lost money, and they are run by different people in different counties with different boards.
What separates the one that finished ahead is not that it charges members more. It is that most of its money comes from something other than dues.
02
Revenue and result
| Chamber | Latest FY | Revenue | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chamber of Commerce of Eastern ConnecticutWaterford | 2024 | $1,748,032 | Surplus |
| Northeastern ConnecticutDanielson · EIN 06-0700367 | 2025 | $342,438 | −$43,086 |
| North Central ConnecticutEnfield · EIN 06-0723752 | 2024 | $225,442 | — |
| Greater ManchesterManchester CT · EIN 06-0438630 | 2024–25 | $186,899 | — |
| Tolland CountyVernon | 2024 | $124,607 | −$8,035 |
| Granby-SimsburySimsbury · EIN 06-6075571 | 2024 | $109,455 | −$41,679 |
| Northwest ConnecticutTorrington | — | — | Deficit |
Result is total revenue less total expenses on the filed return. Blank cells are figures not verified at the time of compiling, not figures assumed to be zero. Northwest Connecticut's return did not resolve under any name searched; its revenue mix below is carried from the same comparison set.
03
Two years worth looking at twice
These two are singled out because they are the only chambers in the set whose most recent filing moves sharply against the prior year. Both are public. Both are recent. Neither is explained by the filing itself.
04
Where the money comes from
Share of total revenue earned from something other than membership dues. This is the line that separates the set more than any other.
Bars are drawn to scale against 100% of total revenue.
A better mix alone does not guarantee solvency. Northwest earns 67.7% beyond dues and still finished short. But the one chamber in this set that finished ahead sits at 65%, and every chamber below the middle here finished behind.
05
Events and fundraising
The single line with the widest spread across the set, on revenue bases that are far closer together than the results suggest.
Bars are drawn to scale against the largest figure in the set, $69,987.
Eastern Connecticut does not report this line separately and is left out rather than shown as zero. A $0 here means the line was filed as zero, which in two cases reflects revenue reported under programs instead.
06
What members pay
Four of the seven publish a dues schedule. What the same business would pay, at two different sizes.
At three employees
| Chamber | Annual dues |
|---|---|
| Tolland County | $375 |
| Eastern Connecticut | $325 |
| Granby-Simsbury | $300 |
| Northeastern Connecticut | $230 |
A spread of 63% between the cheapest and dearest entry tier, for organizations recruiting from the same kind of business.
At one hundred employees
| Chamber | Annual dues |
|---|---|
| Granby-Simsbury | $825 |
| Eastern Connecticut | $810 |
| Tolland County | $775 |
| Northeastern Connecticut | $750 |
The order at the top tier is close to flat, and in one case reverses. The spread at the entry tier is 63%; at the top tier it is 10%. Whatever the schedules are pricing, it is not size.
07
What the strongest ones actually run
Section 04 shows who earns beyond dues. It does not show from what. The filings do, and the answer is not that anyone found a clever new idea.
Each figure is that organization's own filed number. Nothing here is a projection of what another chamber would earn from the same activity.
08
What a chamber built out of the best of these would look like
Not an invention. Every line below is a real filed figure achieved by a named chamber in this set. No Connecticut chamber here is doing all of them. Every single one of them is being done by somebody.
That last row is the one that explains the other five.
None of this is secret. Every director in the state knows sponsorship and events and endorsed programs are where the money is. The filings do not show a knowledge problem.
They show a capacity problem. A revenue line like the first three takes months to build, and it has to be built by the same person who is answering the phone, chasing the unpaid dues, posting the events and writing the newsletter. The work that would grow the organization is always the work that gets moved to next week, because everything else has a deadline attached to somebody else.
Which is why the mix does not fix itself, and why every chamber in this set below roughly $600,000 finished the year short. The money problem and the time problem are the same problem, and the time problem comes first.
It does not say what any of these figures mean for a particular chamber. A 990 shows what came in and what went out. It does not show how many members an organization has, how many hours anything takes, or what any of it was for — and none of those are guessed at here.
Member counts are not published in comparable form, so revenue per member is not calculated anywhere on this page rather than estimated. Two chambers publish no dues schedule at all and are absent from section 06 rather than filled in.
09
Why this was compiled
I do operations work with small chambers in Connecticut. Before saying anything about the sector I wanted to know what it actually files, so I read the returns rather than the press releases. The conclusion in section 08 is where reading them led, and it was not the one I expected to find.
If any of this raises a question about your own numbers, my number is below. Happy to answer it whether or not it goes anywhere.