Anchorage Park Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
412205907
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-T 2025
Location
Anchorage, AK, USA
Phone
9072741003
Rating
79
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Natural Resources Conservation and Protection

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,662,042
Expenses
$2,006,038
Assets
$3,183,870
Liabilities
$118,910

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

Leadership & pay

13 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • ELIZABETH NORDLUND (EXECUTIVE DI): $119,311 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Builds healthy parks and healthy people by mobilizing public support and financial resources for anchorage parks, trails, and recreation opportunities.

What it reported doing in 2025

Trails initiative - the anchorage trails initiative is a community coalition that empowers citizens to speak up for walkable, bikeable transportation strategies and investments to increase connectivity, improve health and attract and retain top talent and investment to anchorage. Schools on trails: this program is designed to get students outside by empowering anchorage teachers with tools and training to enhance education through outdoor experiences. Connection to nearby parks, trails, and green spaces ignite an adventurous spirit and encourage a love of learning and introduce students to their closest environment. Youth employment in parks (yep)- yep is a 10-week summer program that hires anchorage teens to complete park improvement projects. Teens learn natural resource management job skills by building trails and restoring stream banks while increasing civic engagement, environmental awareness, and leadership skills. Yep is designed to positively engage a new generation of diverse young leaders as conservation stewards of public lands through meaningful job training, employment and education. Community tree planting: this program is improving the neighborhoods in anchorage by planting native trees in the citys green spaces. Local youth and community partners are helping green underserved neighborhoods by stabilizing and revegetating streambanks, replanting after invasive species removal, planting street trees, and planting trees at schools and in community spaces. Inclusive play: anchorage park foundation believes that no child should have to sit on the sidelines and watch their peers play. Leveraging the public-private partnership through inclusive play, this program creates outdoor spaces where children and adults of all abilities can play together. Anchorage park foundation works with the community to plan and develop even more inclusive playgrounds in anchorage.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 65% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 91% 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.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and program spending has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 71
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 65
  • Growth: 20

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 65.6%; rating input score 66
  • Program expense ratio: 85.4%; rating input score 85
  • Fundraising efficiency: $15.08 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 94.4%; rating input score 94; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 98%; rating input score 98; 40th 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 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • 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: 24.6%; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.59; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 5.9%; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -6.8% per year; rating input score 0; 4th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -2.7% per year; rating input score 0; 4th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 7.1% per year; rating input score 100; 45th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 65.6% of revenue deployed · 85.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $1.7M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $119K · 13 people listed
  • Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $120K reported
  • Consistency: 37 of 38 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 6 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 5 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.

  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 50/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 50/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 51/100.