Continental Divide Trail Alliance Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
841325488
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2010
Forms available
Form 990 2010
Location
Morrison, CO, USA
Phone
3032783177
Rating confidence
Limited
Sector
Natural Resources Conservation and Protection

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$877,726
Expenses
$1,018,325
Assets
$44,105
Liabilities
$269,855

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2010. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2010. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The alliance organizes continental divide trail construction and maintenance projects, works with land owners, government agencies and communities along the trail, recruits volunteers, build public awareness and support, and raises money to complete the trail. The alliance, founded in 1995, has coordinated the first border-to-border survey, initiated activities and interest along the trail, established hundreds of trail miles with thousands of volunteers, and has educated congress to assure federal funding for the trail.

What it reported doing in 2010

Public outreach and education: over forty youth corps members from the rocky mountain youth corps, southwest conservation corps, and Montana conservation corps worked along the trail in six locations across New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado and contributed 10,736 hours of labor toward the completion of the cdnst. This included completion of one half mile of trail near tunnel gulch in Colorado and reconstruction and heavy maintenance of almost 2.5 miles in the ryan park and fish creek area of the pinedale ranger district in Wyoming, and work in glacier national park. They also presented to over 500 youth during their 2010 presentation week.sca crews working in Idaho contributed 3840 hours of labor along the cdnst in the salmonchallis national forest at a value of $80,064 and completed 4.5 miles of heavy reconstruction and maintenance along the trail.cdta staff and volunteers maintained booths at several events throughout 2010. These included rocky grass in lyons, co, silver city blues festival in silver city New Mexico, pie town festival in pie town, nm, lordsburg festival in lordsburg, va, get outdoors day in denver, Colorado, Montana wilderness conference in Montana, caring for your Colorado event at rei- denver, trans rockies run in leadville, co, cuba ultra-marathon in cuba, nm, the clear creek watershed festival, in Idaho springs, co and the kent denver school community service fair, in denver, co. Cdta was featured in denvers 5280 magazine and helped support the article on the best hikes around denver by explaining the anatomy of a trail. Cdta has also been featured in several backpacker magazines, several local and regional newspaper articles reporting on volunteer events, and in several blogs and other social media outlets.cdta maintains a twitter, facebook group and profile page. Cdta has over 200 friends on facebook and over 100 followers on twitter.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 99% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

- The available evidence is not sufficient to produce an overall rating for this filing. This is not a warning sign.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: NotEnoughData
  • Transparency & Controls: 100
  • Accountability: 79
  • Sustainability: 11
  • Growth: NotEnoughData

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: Limited
  • Program expense ratio: Limited
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 60th 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • 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: -16%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.04; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 6.12; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 7.7%; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: Limited
  • Asset growth: Limited

Details

  • Where the money goes: Financial trends and filed revenue, expense, asset, and liability detail
  • Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $588K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $78K · 8 people listed
  • Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 11/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 2/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 1/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 46/100.
  • High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.