Berkeley Earth Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
462032196
IRS 990 coverage
2014–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Berkeley, CA, USA
Phone
4158906026
Rating
70
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Pollution Abatement and Control Services

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,892,923
Expenses
$572,902
Assets
$1,702,912
Liabilities
$15,646

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

Leadership & pay

10 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • ELIZABETH MULLER (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • KRISTEN SISSENER (EXEC. DIRECTOR): $96,322 total reported compensation
  • ELIZABETH MULLER (PRESIDENT): $46,000 total reported compensation
  • JUDITH SISSENER (SECRETARY): $29,000 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Berkeley earth is an independent non-profit research organization that provides open-source data, accessible analysis, and scientific insight on climate change. Our mission is to deliver rigorous, transparent, and policy-relevant climate science and data to inform public understanding and support data-driven decision making.

What it reported doing in 2024

Berkeley earth maintains and publishes high-resolution global temperature data and related climate data sets and makes these products accessible to the public, scientists, policymakers, and commercial partners. In 2024, we released a major update to our global temperature data set, improving scale to 0.25 resolution, and began work on a new predictive modeling product designed to make future climate risk assessments more accurate and accessible. Our monthly and annual climate reports continue to provide authoritative and timely updates on global and regional climate trends, with over 25,000 global media mentions and more than 500 academic citations in 2024 alone.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% 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.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 47
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 82
  • Sustainability: 76
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 24.4%; rating input score 24
  • Program expense ratio: 79.4%; rating input score 79
  • Fundraising efficiency: $25.66 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • 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: 5 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 56
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 69.7%; rating input score 96; 96th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.97; rating input score 75; 75th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 29.9%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -5% per year; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 9.1% per year; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 16.9% per year; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 24.4% of revenue deployed · 79.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 5 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $455K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $96K · 10 people listed
  • Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $142K reported
  • Consistency: 26 of 26 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 10 filing years from 2014 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 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.
  • 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.

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 24/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 7/100.