California Trails Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
881387346
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2023–2025
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2022
Location
Forestville, CA, USA
Rating
93
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Fund Raising and/or Fund Distribution

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$80,402
Expenses
$82,451
Assets
$10,547
Liabilities
$2,116

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

Leadership & pay

3 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • jacob bayless (President)

People named in this filing

  • jacob bayless (President)
  • austin mcinerny (Secretary)
  • Matthew Blain (Treasurer)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

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

Overview

Mission

CATF supports improving trails and trail advocacy groups throughout the state of California.

What it reported doing in 2025

CATF offers operational grants to the California Mountain Biking Coalition for support, education, collaboration and coalition building of 501(c)(3) trail stewardship organizations across California. In 2025, CAMTB supported over 40 different member organization.CATF also engaged with elected officials and the public to support legislation to this end. Minimal volunteer time were incurred for this activity. "Connected California", a program derived to assist in connecting, expanding and further developing trail networks for the health and recreation of all Californians. Connected California is a nascent program that is still under development. No expenses were incurred for this program in 2025.

Operating model

Revenue model
Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent revenue detail to tell how this nonprofit funds its work.
Distribution model
Grant intermediary. The nonprofit sent 100% of its reported program spending out as grants.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Revenue has declined or grown slowly and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 99
  • Transparency & Controls: 100
  • Sustainability: 30
  • Growth: 40

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 98.4%; rating input score 98

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -2.5%; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.13; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.2; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 12.8% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -18.4% per year; rating input score 0; 16th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -85.8% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 98.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $81K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 3 people listed
  • Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • 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 — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 38/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 14/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 12/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.