Clean Up the River Environment
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 311693392
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Montevideo, MN, USA
- Phone
- 3202692984
- Rating
- 81
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Environmental Beautification and Aesthetics
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,555,616
- Expenses
- $1,233,035
- Assets
- $2,321,340
- Liabilities
- $46,538
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
6 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- DUANE NINNEMAN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- DUANE NINNEMAN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $90,652 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Cure protects and restores resilient communities and landscapes by harnessing the power of people who care about them. We do this because we believe that robust human communities can only be sustained by healthy ecosystems, and robust natural environments can only be regained through vigorous stewardship. Our work takes many forms, but always involves three core practices: awakening people's bonds with the natural world around them, inclusively and strategically exploring issues and actions, systematically building communities of change at critical intersections of ecological and social well-being.
What it reported doing in 2024
Cure's energy democracy program is uniquely focused on strategies to impact climate, energy, and environmental justice decisions affecting rural residents. Energy democracy is about building power to address linkages between environmental challenges, inequities, and other systemic challenges facing our communities.you cannot talk about energy democracy in rural communities without talking about rural electric co-ops. One in three minnesotans gets their electricity from a rural electric co-op (rec). Recs are democratically owned and operated utilities that were created during the new deal to electrify rural america. However, the operations of Minnesota's recs today lack transparency and good governance.cure is a national leader in the rec reform movement. In service to aligning the priorities of Minnesota's rec's to their cooperative founding principles, cure has organized member-owners to change rec priorities: grow transparency in rec governance, build grassroots power, and fight against the rec's reliance on dirty electricity from coal instead transitioning their electricity generation to renewable, community-based energy sources that would be cheaper for their member-owners and be a source of rural economic growth.cure's energy democracy program is helping deliver clean electricity, energy efficiency, climate justice, and economic justice to rural communities and positive climate and energy impacts to all minnesotans.energy democracy is: clean - energy produced without the release of greenhouse gases, for example, wind and solar powerlocal - energy produced and owned in our communities and by our neighborsdemocratic - community having a voice and power in the decision-making about our energy future
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 93% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 90% 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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and some filed totals do not add up.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 69
- Transparency & Controls: 88
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 67
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 63.1%; rating input score 63
- Program expense ratio: 78.9%; rating input score 79
- Fundraising efficiency: $35.01 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 71; 71st 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: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 39th 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: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 20.7%; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.88; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 7.4%; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 20.5% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 15.6% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 18.1% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 63.1% of revenue deployed · 78.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $973K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $91K · 6 people listed
- Consistency: 35 of 36 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 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.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: CEO compensation review process not reported.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 46/100.