Ecology Action
Legal name: Ecology Action of Santa Cruz
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 942584236
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2013–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Santa Cruz, CA, US
- Phone
- 831.426.5925
- Rating
- 81
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Standard
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $22,498,293
- Expenses
- $21,323,839
- Assets
- $21,263,395
- Liabilities
- $5,216,632
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
24 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- James J Murphy (CEO & Exec Dir)
Highest reported compensation
- James J Murphy (CEO & Exec Dir): $369,678 total reported compensation
- John Hirt (VP Project Delivery): $350,515 total reported compensation
- Jane M McClellan (Principal, Taper): $339,593 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To advance equitable community climate solutions through partnership, education, and action.
What it reported doing in 2025
Community Initiatives-Ecology Action builds a more sustainable and equitable future by promoting opportunities to make simple, everyday changes in how we live and work in our communities. Ecology Action powers programs that help advance resilience in communities by providing resources, hands-on tools, training, and perhaps most importantly - connection to others through the Resilient Central Coast program.Ecology Actions local active transportation programs have helped thousands of people make the switch to low-carbon transportation. Modo, our active transportation initiative, offers community-based planning, education and engagement to help people of all ages safely adopt active transportation modes that reduce emissions. Ecology Action acts as a catalyst on both sides of the electric vehicle equation. We help people from all walks of life purchase electric vehicles through our EVs For Everyone Initiative. We also help property owners expand access to EV charging by providing technical assistance and support for the installation of charging infrastructure at their properties. Throughout these efforts, we prioritize historically under-served communities. Ecology Action designs and executes public education programs to inspire Monterey Bay Area residents and businesses to make water conservation a way of life. This lessens water dependency on our rivers, reservoirs and groundwater wells and builds resilience in our communities against drought.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 87% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- 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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Program spending has declined or grown slowly and revenue has declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 78
- Transparency & Controls: 90
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 36
- Growth: 20
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 76.2%; rating input score 76
- Program expense ratio: 77.5%; rating input score 77
- Fundraising efficiency: $159.29 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 16th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 5 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 83
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Pass
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 5.2%; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.25; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 15.8%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -4.2% per year; rating input score 0; 5th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -2.1% per year; rating input score 0; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 3.9% per year; rating input score 100; 26th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 5 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 2 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 76.2% of revenue deployed · 77.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $16.5M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $370K · 24 people listed · 5 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $3.3M reported
- Consistency: 31 of 32 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes executive pay and related organizations
- Filing history: 12 filing years from 2013 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 13 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
- 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 45/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 29/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 11/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 46/100.