Foundation for Advancement in Conservation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
237424418
IRS 990 coverage
2018–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Washington, DC, USA
Phone
2024529545
Rating
74
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$3,285,162
Expenses
$2,171,565
Assets
$9,394,535
Liabilities
$642,509

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

Leadership & pay

13 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • DANIELLE AMATO-MILLIGAN (PRESIDENT)
  • PETER TRIPPI (VICE PRESIDENT (UNTIL 11/25))
  • LISSA ROSENTHAL-YOFFE (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • LISSA ROSENTHAL-YOFFE (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $156,298 total reported compensation
  • TIFFANI EMIG (DEPUTY DIRECTOR): $124,599 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 undertake and underwrite programs and initiatives to advance the conservation profession in all its facets, to support conservation education and career development, and to apply the expertise of the profession in addressing the nation's artistic, cultural, and historic preservation priorities.

What it reported doing in 2025

Outreach - the collections assessment for preservation (cap) program is administered by faic under a cooperative agreement with the institute of museum and library services (imls). Participating museums receive support for a general conservation assessment from a qualified collections assessor and a building assessor. The two assessors work collaboratively to provide institutions with recommendations for improved collections care. While no new assessments were awarded in 2025, many of the 70+ museums in the 2024 cohort completed their assessments in 2025.in 2014, faic began operating connecting to collections care, an online community and professional development resource for small and mid-sized museums, with funding from imls. This community offers an average of 12 free webinars and two low-cost courses per year. The program also supports a moderated forum with more than 3,800 subscribers that provides collections care guidance to museum staff.faic hosts the knowledge-sharing platform conservation online (cool), including the internationally global conservation forum (formerly known as the conservationdistlist) with over 11,000 subscribers.

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 78% for direct work, and 22% for grants.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of total spending goes to programs 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: 68
  • Transparency & Controls: 61
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 78
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 58.3%; rating input score 58
  • Program expense ratio: 82%; rating input score 82
  • Fundraising efficiency: $40.53 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 75; 75th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 18th 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: 2 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 25
    • Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
    • Requires narrative reports: Fail
    • Conducts field audits: Fail
    • May suspend future funding: Fail
    • Requires financial reports: Pass
    • Conducts site visits: Fail
    • Requires grant agreements: Fail
    • May require repayment: Fail
  • Grant itemization coverage: 97.4%; rating input score 97; 39th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 8 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: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 33.9%; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.33; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.07; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 1.1%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 0.8% per year; rating input score 100; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 3.7% per year; rating input score 100; 27th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 3.4% per year; rating input score 100; 24th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 58.3% of revenue deployed · 82% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $1.8M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $156K · 13 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 36 of 37 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 8 filing years from 2018 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 6 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 7 filed related-organization links
  • 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 58/100.
  • High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
  • High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight: 6 of 8 not reported.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 55/100.