Philanthropic Spotlight: Maritime Museum of San Diego
Located on the San Diego Bay, the Maritime Museum of San Diego is recognized worldwide for its restoration, maintenance, and operation of historic vessels that tell the story of the entire West Coast and beyond. With one of the most extensive collections of historic ships in the world, the museum is regarded as one of the top three Maritime Museums in the world, as well as one of the nation’s top attractions.
Established in 1948, the Maritime Museum of San Diego comprises the world’s oldest active ship, the 1863 iron bark known as the Star of India; as well as Berkeley, an 1898 ferryboat from the San Francisco Bay area; Medea, a 1904 steam yacht that served in both World War I and World War II; the USS Dolphin, a diesel-electric submarine launched in 1968; and four replicas of other famous boats.
Through support from businesses, organizations, and individual donors, the museum continues its legacy of historical preservation and education about the Pacific. Offering a multitude of engaging opportunities including self-guided tours and general admission entry hours, docent-guided group tours, tall ship charters and historic bay cruises, year-round public events, educational programs, membership and a distinctive venue for corporate/private events, the museum also holds special events such as its 2022 Concert Series and the popular pirate performance, Boarded! A New Pirate Adventure. Additionally, the Maritime Museum of San Diego features exhibits including an interactive and educational experience about monsters of the sea, the Wind & Water photography exhibit, a model gallery, and more. The museum also maintains the MacMullen Library and Research Archives aboard the Berkeley and publishes Mains’l Haul: A Journal of Pacific Maritime History, a quarterly peer-reviewed journal.
To support its mission of preserving the community memory of our seafaring experiences through the collection, preservation, and presentation of San Diego’s rich maritime heritage, PBO Advisory Group has helped the Maritime Museum with monthly accounting, year-end audit, the shuttered venue operator grant, and the employee retention tax credit.
“Rick Dahlseid and the rest of the staff at PBO Advisory Group have been a pleasure to work with. PBO Advisory came on board with us at a difficult time: our CFO had left us with minimal notice some time earlier with a very understaffed internal accounting department and a huge backlog of work. We were also in the middle of the pandemic and had several outstanding Federal relief program grants that required immediate and thorough attention. There were other local governmental and foundation grants we were either applying for or reporting to and we needed financial information included for those as well. Not long after that, we had our annual audit to get through along with a backlog of financial statements to our Board that we needed to bring current. All that said, Rick and the PBO Advisory team were superb additions to our crew that joined us in the nick of time.”
– Raymond Ashley, Ph.D., K. C. I., President/CEO, Maritime Museum of San Diego
It is a pleasure to offer our services to organizations that are dedicated to developing, maintaining, and strengthening our connections with elements of local history like the Maritime Museum of San Diego.
For more information about the Maritime Museum, visit sdmaritime.org. To learn more about how PBO Advisory can help your organization, contact Rick Dahlseid.
Rick Dahlseid
Consulting CFO
rick@pboadvisory.com
858-935-48655