California Urban Forests Council
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 953565481
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2025–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2025
- Location
- Laguna Beach, CA, USA
- Phone
- 4154798733
- Rating
- 90
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Alliance/Advocacy Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $153,753
- Expenses
- $218,899
- Assets
- $155,370
- Liabilities
- $1,323
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Sarah Gaskin (President)
- Travis Evans (Vice President)
People named in this filing
- Sarah Gaskin (President)
- Travis Evans (Vice President)
- Diana Hickey (Secretary)
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
The California Urban Forests Council (CAUFC) was founded in 1968 as the first urban forest council in the nation. We envision thriving and prosperous California communities transformed by healthy trees and green spaces. We advance smart investment in green infrastructure through education and outreach, community-based activities and collaborative action.
What it reported doing in 2025
Organized an Annual Conference (Rooted in Resilience: Fire, Recovery, and Urban Forestry) in Vallejo with 60 attendees. Held four in-person workshops, three in-person networking events, and two webinars. Collected data on the urban municipal forestry program of 58 California Counties and 481 California cities/towns. Delivered monthly e-newsletters to over 4,500 subscribers.
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
- 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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 92
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 27
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 80.3%; rating input score 80
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -42.4%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.71; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: 3.7% per year; rating input score 100; 37th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 5.3% per year; rating input score 100; 44th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 80.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $176K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
- Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 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 — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 2/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 48/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 38/100.