Dc Natives

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
821008866
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2023–2025
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2022
Location
Washington, DC, USA
Phone
2024215457
Rating
79
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Botanical, Horticultural, and Landscape Services

Reported finances

Revenue
$55,104
Expenses
$31,067
Assets
$185,570
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • THORNE RANKIN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

People named in this filing

  • ZERLINE HUGHES SPRUILL (DIRECTOR)
  • SYNTA KEELING (DIRECTOR)
  • LIA CHEEK (DIRECTOR)

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

The mission of dc natives is to increase polinator habitats and create beauty for dc residents.

What it reported doing in 2025

Pollinator gardens. Dc natives worked with neighbors to build pollinator habitats in yards, balconies, and gardens. Each installed garden contributed to a larger pollinator pathway. The gardens fostered neighborhood collaboration and a deeper understanding of the role of pollinators. The plantings also created beauty that every neighborhood deserves. Our collaborative approach involves working with neighbors and incorporating their preferences for the style, location, and shape of their pollinator gardens. Plants and technical assistance are provided free of charge. Dc natives provided the plants at no-cost to the participant/host garden. In exchange, the participant gardener helped to prepare the soil and maintains the garden by watering and weeding the garden. The gardens are a vehicle to help build community connections-underscoring our shared environment and creating new relationships among neighbors. Dc natives used a community-driven approach to helping neighbors create pollinator habitats. In 2024 alone, dc natives planted more than 77 native pollinator gardens around dc and we increased our presence in ward 8. This work involved the installation of over 1,500 plants. These gardens are a critical step in restoring our eco-systems and climate resilience. Native plants not only retain stormwater with their deep roots and mitigate the pollution of our waters but are also often more resilient to drought once established. They provide essential food and shelter to our native pollinators without whom our food systems will collapse. They are effective at storing greenhouse gases. Native plants are also an essential alternative to invasive grasses and plants that host invasive insects such as the spotted lanternfly and are more prone to fueling wildfires.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 100% 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.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of total spending goes to programs. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and revenue has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 63
  • Transparency & Controls: 100
  • Sustainability: 81
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 48.7%; rating input score 49
  • Program expense ratio: 86.3%; rating input score 86

Transparency & Controls

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

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 43.6%; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 5.97; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 48.1% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -51.3% per year; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 16.9% per year; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 48.7% of revenue deployed · 86.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 2 filed program accomplishments · $27K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 9 people listed
  • Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
  • 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: Mission deployment rate scored 49/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.