Earthroots Field School Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 262379948
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2019
- Location
- Trabuco Canyon, CA, USA
- Phone
- 9497095777
- Rating
- 76
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Environmental Education and Outdoor Survival Programs
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $391,713
- Expenses
- $410,259
- Assets
- $119,785
- Liabilities
- $96,030
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
7 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- RACHEL KIMBALL (PRESIDENT)
- JODI LEVINE (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- JODI LEVINE (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $27,335 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Earthroots inspires life-long dedication to environmental stewardshipthrough deep natureand community connection mentoring. Earthroots create a learning environments for participants to gain a better understanding of how all of life is connected. They learn how our actions influence the world around us.
What it reported doing in 2024
Earthroots ecoliteracy is a k-5 education program that brings students outdoors and utilizes their campus as the field trip destination to learn about organic gardening, native habitat restoration, rainwater harvesting, composting and recycling. Students develop meaningful connections to the earth through hands-on outdoor lessons in life cycles of animals and plants, natural building, regenerative agriculture, wilderness awareness, ethnobotany, water conservation, and reducing waste. As a result of interacting with the natural environment, many students develop improved cognitive functioning including increased concentration, greater attention capacities, reduced stress levels, and improved social skills. The program meets september through may and serves 620 elementary school students, with each student participating an average of 8 hours of program time.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 75% for direct work, and 25% for grants.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 77
- Transparency & Controls: 87
- Accountability: 63
- Sustainability: 23
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 81.6%; rating input score 82
- Program expense ratio: 77.8%; rating input score 78
- Fundraising efficiency: $15.48 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 90.3%; rating input score 90; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 90%; rating input score 90; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 2 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 25
- 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: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -4.7%; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.29; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.8; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 6.7%; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 27.8% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 8.7% per year; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 4.1% per year; rating input score 100; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 81.6% of revenue deployed · 77.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 9 of 10 board members independent · 2 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $319K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $27K · 7 people listed
- Consistency: 30 of 31 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2020 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 5 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 7 not reported.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 51/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 30/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 16/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 7/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 31/100.