Amazon Frontlines

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
475521013
IRS 990 coverage
2016–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
San Francisco, CA, USA
Phone
4152373695
Rating
79
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Water Resource, Wetlands Conservation and Management

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$4,981,500
Expenses
$5,533,735
Assets
$4,947,646
Liabilities
$521,574

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • MITCHELL ANDERSON (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • MITCHELL ANDERSON (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $176,527 total reported compensation
  • JEREMY NELSON (DIRECTOR OF FINANCE AND OPERATIONS): $128,738 total reported compensation
  • ALEXANDER GOFF (DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT): $127,352 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Amazon frontlines builds power with indigenous peoples to defend their rights to land, life and cultural survival in the amazon rainforest.

What it reported doing in 2024

Defending rights and securing land tenure: we continue to wage hard-hitting legal battles and advocacy campaigns with our indigenous partners that upend bad laws and close loopholes, jam destructive projects, and advance indigenous rights, regionally and globally, through legal precedent and improved legal frameworks. In 2024, we successfully organized and campaigned with ecuadorian civil society to permanently ban oil drilling in the yasuni rainforest in eastern ecuador and provided on-the-ground emergency relief and humanitarian aid to siona communities in the midst of armed conflict in southern colombia. We also worked with the kofan and waorani nations to uphold the indigenous right to free, prior and informed consent (fpic) - or the right of indigenous peoples to decide the future of their territories - at the national level in ecuador.in 2024, we implemented a land-titling program in ecuador called "allpamanta" (territory is life in kichwa), alongside indigenous federations conaie and confeniae to recover indigenous tenure over government held lands in national parks which span 1.5 million hectares of forests nationwide, thereby enforcing indigenous rights and retaining protected status, but with greater incentives for indigenous use, protection and land management. In peru, we are also advancing land-titling processes alongside the amazonian indigenous federation aidesep, with the regional indigenous organization orpio, the siekopai national organization oispe, as well as nonprofits like institute for legal defense and rainforest foundation us, in order to form a broad coalition effort to secure a national impact on policy that will benefit all indigenous peoples in peru in recovering and protecting their territories.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 99% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 52% for direct work, and 48% for grants.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 87
  • Transparency & Controls: 66
  • Accountability: 91
  • Sustainability: 27
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 95.1%; rating input score 95
  • Program expense ratio: 85.6%; rating input score 86
  • Fundraising efficiency: $15.06 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 13th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: 1 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 12
    • Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
    • Requires narrative reports: Fail
    • Conducts field audits: Fail
    • May suspend future funding: Fail
    • Requires financial reports: Fail
    • Conducts site visits: Fail
    • Requires grant agreements: Fail
    • May require repayment: Fail
  • Grant itemization coverage: 97.2%; rating input score 97; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -11.1%; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.89; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.11; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 7.8%; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 21.5% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 12.8% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 12.4% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 95.1% of revenue deployed · 85.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $4.7M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $177K · 8 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 32 of 33 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 7 filing years from 2016 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 4 filed money-flow records
  • 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 — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight: 7 of 8 not reported.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 51/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 12/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 9 not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 33/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 38/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Foreign grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 58/100.