Cuyahoga Valley Countryside Conservancy

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN: 341896395
IRS 990-EZ coverage: 2023–2025
Forms available: Form 990 2022, Form 990-EZ 2025
Location: Cuyahoga Falls, OH, USA
Phone: 3302834512
Rating: 68
Verdict: SUPPORTED
Rating confidence: Moderate
Sector: Land Resources Conservation

Reported finances

Revenue: $172
Expenses: $3,260
Assets: $39,522

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

6 people listed

People named in this filing

MARILYN WOTOWIEC (CHAIR)
KAYLANA SAPKAL (TRUSTEE)
SUSAN SCHMIDT (SECRETARY)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Countryside's mission is to build a thriving local food community by connecting people, food, and land in and beyond cuyahoga valley national park. We work to preserve land, cultivate farm and food businesses, and expand local, healthy food. Our objective is to become an ecologically and financially sustainable organization, using the lens of equity to build highly effective models to build community around local food.

Operating model

Revenue model: Investment-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from recurring investment income.
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

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of total spending goes to programs and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

Financial Efficiency: 68
Transparency & Controls: 82
Sustainability: 34
Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
Program expense ratio: 15.9%; rating input score 16

Transparency & Controls

Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
Major donor itemization: Limited

Sustainability

Operating margin: -1,795.3%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
Total-asset coverage ratio: 12.12; rating input score 93; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

Program expense growth: -92.5% per year; rating input score 0; 4th percentile among comparable filings
Revenue growth: -14.7% per year; rating input score 0; 19th percentile among comparable filings
Asset growth: -11.1% per year; rating input score 0; 16th percentile among comparable filings

Details

Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 15.9% of spending went to programs
Governance: Filed governance answers
Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $517 in reported program spending
Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 6 people listed
Consistency: 6 of 6 current checks pass
Schedules: 2 filed schedules
Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
Contacts: How to reach this organization
Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
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 — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 16/100.
High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 1/100.
High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.