Concerned Resource & Environmental Workers
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 770374392
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2012–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Ojai, CA, USA
- Phone
- 8056498847
- Rating
- 81
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Youth Development Programs
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,350,374
- Expenses
- $1,328,814
- Assets
- $872,308
- Liabilities
- $58,770
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Sandy Buechley (President)
- John McNeil (Vice President)
People named in this filing
- Michelle Henson (Director)
- Mary Bergen (Secretary)
- Laura Ciontea (Treasurer)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The C.R.E.W. is an environmentally oriented youth leadership and employment and youth education nonprofit oganization. The C.R.E.W.s mission is to provide job training, paid employment and opportunities for leadership and community service for youth from Kindergarten to age 26, while preserving, maintaining, and improving public and private wildlands and protecting local communities against the threat of wildfire
What it reported doing in 2024
1) Fire mitigation services; Prevention of wildfires by the free removal of hazardous vegetative fuels brush clearance for low income seniors, veterans and disabled residents. This program also provides free chipping services for all Ojai Valley residents. 2) Trail repair and construction programs: Trail construction and repair on private and public lands with priority focus within the catastrophic 2017 Thomas Fire Burn Scar 3) Environmental and conservation work: Restoration and Conservation of multiple acre projects that involves trail construction for public access, vegetation management, alternative treatments, irrigation, planting and maintenance of critical habitats.
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 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
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: 88
- Sustainability: 43
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 83.1%; rating input score 83
- Program expense ratio: 84.3%; rating input score 84
- Fundraising efficiency: $10.43 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 8th 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: 5 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 71
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 1.6%; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.66; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.07; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 11.3% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 11% per year; rating input score 100; 69th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 17.1% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 83.1% of revenue deployed · 84.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 5 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $1.1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 11 people listed
- Consistency: 24 of 25 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 9 filing years from 2012 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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: Fundraising efficiency scored 39/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 41/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 30/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 48/100.