Echoes of Nature Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
274361114
IRS 990 coverage
2011–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2010
Location
Bowie, MD, USA
Phone
3018601306
Rating
75
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Environmental Education and Outdoor Survival Programs

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$258,280
Expenses
$203,751
Assets
$149,014
Liabilities
$2,414

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

Leadership & pay

11 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • Cheryl Uzzo (Board Member): $13,205 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

He mission is to bridge the gap between people of all ages and nature. The goal is to promote understanding and stewardship of the natural world. This is accomplished by providing nature oriented programs featuring live animal ambassadors at our audiences location.

What it reported doing in 2025

In 2025 Echoes of Nature provides engaging and informative nature-oriented programs to audiences of all ages at their locations. The programs were at schools, early childhood centers, adult centers, birthday parties, libraries, and community events. In the following year we will continue our programs featuring live animal ambassadors. In order to provide enrichment to senior citizens at facilities with limited financial resources, Echoes of Nature works with each facilities budget. The school age programs are designed to support the Maryland State Environmental Literacy Standards. The presence of live animal ambassadors brings the environmental curriculums to life. The audience size reached for 2025 was approximately 60,000 from 1,800 programs presented.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 91% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and some filed totals do not add up.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 71
  • Transparency & Controls: 79
  • Accountability: 79
  • Sustainability: 51
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 72.4%; rating input score 72
  • Program expense ratio: 92%; rating input score 92
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 78.6%; rating input score 79; 1st percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • 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: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Fail
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 21.1%; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.73; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 6.5%; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 10.5% per year; rating input score 100; 69th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 9.5% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 11.4% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 72.4% of revenue deployed · 92% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $187K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $13K · 11 people listed
  • Consistency: 23 of 26 current checks pass · 3 findings to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 14 filing years from 2011 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 8 not reported.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule D revenue reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule M noncash within contributions did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 33/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 29/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 36/100.