Environmental Defense Action Fund

What it reported doing in 2024

Strengthen People's and Nature's Ability to Thrive through Advocacy - In fisheries and aquaculture, EDF Action played a vital role in educating the public and policymakers about the economic and environmental benefits of sustainable aquaculture alongside healthy, well-managed fisheries. Our work highlighted how smart seafood policy can create jobs, strengthen food security, and support coastal communities while minimizing environmental risks. EDF Action helped build congressional support for protecting National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) from ongoing agency and staffing cuts, and for securing appropriations levels that allow NMFS to carry out its core fishery-management responsibilities. We partnered with coastal community leaders and fishermen to elevate policy solutions that promote sustainable and resilient fisheries, a responsive NMFS, and the regulatory stability on which the domestic seafood supply depends. Through sustained media outreach, legislative engagement, and coalition-building, EDF Action elevated sustainable aquaculture in federal policy discussions and advanced the bipartisan MARA Act as a new consensus framework. By strengthening relationships with congressional leaders, industry stakeholders, and environmental advocates, we reinforced the need for a science-based, community-informed approach to offshore aquaculture and federal fisheries management in the United States. In agriculture, EDF Action advocated for the inclusion of Inflation Reduction Act conservation funding in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, permanently expanding USDA conservation programs. This action represents roughly a $35 billion increase in conservation investments over the next two decades. The outcome followed years of engagement with Republican lawmakers to preserve these funds rather than rescind or reallocate them to non-environmental priorities, and it represented a critical policy win in the tax and spending reconciliation bill. In addition to this permanent expansion, EDF Action worked with partners to submit comments to the MAHA Commission. That engagement helped shape USDA's recently announced regenerative agriculture initiative - a pilot program prioritizing conservation practices that improve soil health, water quality, and nutrition outcomes.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 94.4%; rating input score 94
• Program expense ratio: 92.1%; rating input score 92
• Fundraising efficiency: $34.94 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 14th 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: 98.5%; rating input score 99; 30th percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Fail
  • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: -2.3%; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.44; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.1; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 0.9%; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 7.9% per year; rating input score 100; 61st percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 10.9% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 3.6% per year; rating input score 100; 26th percentile among comparable filings