Cascade Climate
Legal name: Cascade Climate Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 932117635
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2023–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Somerville, MA, USA
- Phone
- 4013730068
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Standard
- Sector
- Research Institutes and/or Public Policy Analysis
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $5,675,000
- Expenses
- $3,095,955
- Assets
- $5,661,115
- Liabilities
- $203,539
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- David Ellis (CEO)
- Anil Soni (President)
Highest reported compensation
- David Ellis (CEO): $255,893 total reported compensation
- Vilas Rao (Director of Operations): $236,891 total reported compensation
- Zhixin Wang (Chief Programs Officer): $200,517 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Cascade Climate is a philanthropy-backed nonprofit helping mobilize a comprehensive response to the climate crisis by accelerating high-potential solutions that remain on the margins of mainstream climate action.
What it reported doing in 2024
Enhanced Rock Weathering is a natural system climate intervention which accelerates the existing chemical weathering reactions to durably remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Cascade helps remove the biggest bottlenecks inhibiting ERWs progress by coordinating ambitious cross-sector initiatives, building tools and infrastructure that unlock cycles of learning-by-doing, and resourcing high-leverage R&D and policy work.
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 85% 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 a large share of total spending goes to programs. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 62
- Transparency & Controls: 83
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 69
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 45.9%; rating input score 46
- Program expense ratio: 84.1%; rating input score 84
- Fundraising efficiency: $50.38 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 99.8%; rating input score 100; 41st 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: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- 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: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 45.4%; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.83; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 34.9%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 147.9% per year; rating input score 100; 100th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 44.5% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 65.2% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 7 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 3 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 45.9% of revenue deployed · 84.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $2.6M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $256K · 10 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 24 of 24 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 2 filing years from 2023 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 8 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 2 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.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 46/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 59/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 4/100.