BirdLife International
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 980175797
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, UK
- Phone
- +44 (0) 1223 277 318
- Rating
- 79
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Bird Sanctuary, Preserve
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $41,292,150
- Expenses
- $39,838,743
- Assets
- $51,151,829
- Liabilities
- $7,609,787
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- M Harper (Chief Executive Officer)
Highest reported compensation
- E McAdams (Chief Development Officer): $309,415 total reported compensation
- M Harper (Chief Executive Officer): $203,005 total reported compensation
- H Bull (Chief Operating Officer): $173,415 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
BirdLife International is a global Partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources.
What it reported doing in 2024
Safe Flyways - Illegal Killing of Birds Phase 3
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 70% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 64% for direct work, 11% for grants, and 25% for affiliated organizations.
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: 62
- Accountability: 91
- Sustainability: 52
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 90.3%; rating input score 90
- Program expense ratio: 93.4%; rating input score 93
- Fundraising efficiency: $18.39 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 94.1%; rating input score 94; 20th 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: Missing
- Written employment contract: Pass
- 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: 71%; rating input score 71; 14th 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; 66th 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: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 3.5%; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.28; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.15; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 2.4%; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 4.8% per year; rating input score 100; 40th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 3.7% per year; rating input score 100; 31st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 13.5% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 2 programs and campaigns described on the official site
- Where the money goes: 90.3% of revenue deployed · 93.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 22 of 22 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $37.2M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $309K · 5 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 48 of 50 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
- Schedules: 9 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2020 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 9 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 4 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.
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 55/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 9 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 48/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 45/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Foreign grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.