Coastal Watershed Council
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 680368798
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2014–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Santa Cruz, CA, USA
- Phone
- 8314649200
- Rating
- 88
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Water Resource, Wetlands Conservation and Management
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $633,707
- Expenses
- $750,413
- Assets
- $528,613
- Liabilities
- $49,159
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- LAURIE EGAN (Executive Dir.): $118,613 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
CWC is pursuing its mission of protecting and preserving coastal watersheds through a strategic focus on the lower San Lorenzo River, transforming the river into a treasured community asset and destination that Santa Cruz is proud of.
What it reported doing in 2024
The coastal watershed council (cwc), a 501(c)(3) public benefit corporation, was formed in 1995 in response to the declining health of watersheds connected to the monterey bay national marine sanctuary. Cwcs mission is to preserve and protect coastal watersheds through stewardship, education and monitoring. Over the past 30 years, cwc has educated thousands of students and trained thousands of volunteers to protect the natural resources along californias central coast. Today, cwc is using this expertise to revitalize the san lorenzo river in santa cruz, ca, by inspiring people to explore, enhance and protect it. In its 2024-25 fiscal year, cwc achieved environmental and social outcomes in the following ways: recruited 482 volunteers to help increase biodiversity by removing 4458 square feet of highly invasive species and seeding new native plants comprising 7 unique species.educated 780 youth through the watershed rangers program, where they learned about and took action to help their rivertaught 164 lessons across the school year at 8 schools with 27 teachers in kindergarten through 7th grades, including leading 630 youth on field trips to the lower san lorenzo riverengaged multi-generational families through events like fiesta de los artesimproved emergency preparedness in river-adjacent neighborhoods to respond to flooding and climate impactscontinued a new partnership with the downtown streets team to train people experiencing homelessness in river restoration techniques at the san lorenzo river.collaborated with the city of santa cruz to ensure a safe and accessible riverwalk park
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 65% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- 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 fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 92
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 22
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 90.9%; rating input score 91
- Fundraising efficiency: $16.6 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- 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: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -18.4%; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.7; rating input score 32; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.09; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 15.8%; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 7.6% per year; rating input score 100; 54th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 4.5% per year; rating input score 100; 40th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 13% per year; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 90.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $682K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $119K · 10 people listed
- Consistency: 24 of 24 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 11 filing years from 2014 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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 10/100.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 53/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 32/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 21/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 43/100.