Catholic Climate Covenant

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
811503864
IRS 990 coverage
2017–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Washington, DC, USA
Phone
2029877581
Rating
82
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Affiliation
Christianity

Reported finances

Revenue
$846,126
Expenses
$1,616,184
Assets
$2,489,560
Liabilities
$2,087,451

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

Leadership & pay

11 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Dan Misleh (Executive Director)

Highest reported compensation

  • Dan Misleh (Executive Director): $138,738 total reported compensation
  • Lonnie Ellis (Associate Director): $122,968 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

The Catholic Climate Covenant inspires and equips people and institutions to care for creation and care for the poor. Organizations mission through its twenty national partners, it guides the United States catholic churches response to climate change by educating, giving public witness, and offering resources.

What it reported doing in 2024

The Covenant's Catholic Energies Program developed several solar and energy efficiency projects for Catholic institutions across the United States including Illinois, Rhode Island, Virginia, Texas, Puerto Rico and New York. The solar projects alone will offset 100,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases. All of the projects came at no cost to the facility owners as Catholic Energies secured investors who own the solar assets. In addition, all projects will help substantially reduce energy costs, savings that can now be used for other ministries, and to educate the community on their benefit to the organization, the church, and our duty to care for creation. In FY2023, the covenant created a young adult mobilization program and youth mobilization program to empower Catholic young adults and youth to follow the call to care for creation and generate climate solutions, from the foundation of their Catholic faith. These programs are working directly with them to build their leadership capacity and organize within their dioceses, to inspire their local Catholic institutions to commit to actions that care for creation and act on climate. The programs are also providing training and resources such as the whole makers curriculum, to inspire ecological conversion as asked by Saint John Paul II and Pope Francis. In FY2021, the Vatican and the USCCB asked the covenant to lead efforts to promote the Vatican's Laudato Si action platform. The covenant continues this effort including advising the global effort, convening regular meetings with us Catholics leading care for creation efforts in their dioceses and parishes; encouraging use of an US-specific website www.godsplanet.us in the service of the U.S. Catholic to inspire, showcase, educate and equip us institutions across the 7 sectors; and hosting webinars to educate the community on the platform. Among other things, the number of parishes and dioceses participating in the convenings has grown and continues to increase today. We also continued to educate our constituency on care for creation issues through webinars and programs such as celebrating the season of creation and earth day, which were downloaded by thousands of people.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 65% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 96% 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 78
  • Transparency & Controls: 85
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 21
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 64.8%; rating input score 65
  • Fundraising efficiency: $2.84 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 81.4%; rating input score 81; 35th 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: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -91%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.54; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.84; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 16.2%; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 12.8% per year; rating input score 100; 70th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 8% per year; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 27% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 64.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $139K · 11 people listed
  • Consistency: 32 of 33 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 8 filing years from 2017 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 4 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.
  • 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: Fundraising efficiency scored 8/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 1/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Form 990 shared with the board not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 57/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 8/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 21/100.