Earthwise Aware Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
821292474
IRS 990 coverage
2025–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2024, Form 990-N 2023
Location
Somerville, MA, USA
Phone
6176845204
Rating
52
Verdict
MIXED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Wildlife Preservation, Protection

Reported finances

Revenue
$644,341
Expenses
$9,051
Assets
$744,326
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Claire O'Neill (President)
  • Linda Williams (Vice President and Secretary)

People named in this filing

  • Claire O'Neill (President)
  • Linda Williams (Vice President and Secretary)
  • Jill Brogan (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. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Advancing Biodiversity research with citizen science

What it reported doing in 2025

Long Term Ecological Research (LTER): EwA's LTER program is EwA's participatory science program that bridges science, communities, and conservation through rigorous, open-access fieldwork that informs biodiversity protection and builds adaptive capacity in the face of environmental change.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 98% 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

MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 26
  • Transparency & Controls: 65
  • Accountability: 70
  • Sustainability: 96
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 1.7%; rating input score 2
  • Program expense ratio: 75.3%; rating input score 75
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Missing
  • 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: 2 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 29
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • 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: 98.6%; rating input score 100; 100th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 82.24; rating input score 99; 99th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: 73.8% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 70.1% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 1.7% of revenue deployed · 75.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 2 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $7K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 8 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 18 of 19 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • 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: Mission deployment rate scored 2/100.
  • High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 6 not reported.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.