Foundation for Environmental Education
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 311426752
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2022–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2020, Form 990-EZ 2025
- Location
- Columbus, OH, USA
- Phone
- 6143360776
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Environmental Education and Outdoor Survival Programs
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $26,086
- Expenses
- $68,155
- Assets
- $392,308
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
3 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Glen G Kizer (President)
People named in this filing
- Glen G Kizer (President)
- Robert A Judson (Treasurer)
- Betty McKee (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-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Solar Schools-Donate solar electricity systems to schools for use as educational tools. The solar electricity systems are installed in high profile locations at each school with high visibility and installed by certified solar installers and certified electricians. Solar Data is collected at each school for use for all of the schools as teaching tools. We donate data collection systems for use in classrooms and provide help with maintaining the PV systems at each school. We provide teacher training to schools without charge or cost to districts, schools, or teachers. Most of our current work is in Illinois but we have been working in Ohio, Kentucky, Washington DC, California, Texas, Washington (state), Pennsylvania, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, New Mexico, Louisiana, Maine and Florida.
What it reported doing in 2025
Over the last 3+ decades we have put in over 1,000 solar electricity systems at schools across the country with around 500 in Illinois alone. During the time, we also trained thousands of teachers and impacted tens of thousands of students and that work is still having an impact in most if not all of those school districts. But times have changed. Those projects we completed involved the teaching/education side of schools. Today, solar electricity is no longer the mysterious source of energy that made school districts want to learn more about it and use the data in their classrooms. Today, school districts want larger solar electricity systems that benefit BOTH the teaching side of their district and the business side. Solar electricity systems can lower electricity bills and almost always do. Larger systems can still have a positive impact on classrooms if the district goes in that direction. The data from these systems can help teach students about the science of energy and a lot about math and statistics and spreadsheets. BUT there are a lot of vendors/companies out there that are taking advantage of a lack of experience on the part of school districts that want to buy large solar electricity systems that may cost more than a $1 million and those vendors have them sign contracts to finance the systems that are not financially good for those districts. Some districts assume that all vendors are the same. Plus, even smart districts usually have zero experience with power purchase agreements (PPAs). We are helping these districts understand the terms better so they make fewer mistakes.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 72% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 54% for direct work, and 46% for grants.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and program spending has declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 87
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 36
- Growth: 0
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 66.1%; rating input score 66
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -161.3%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 5.76; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 36.7%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -32.7% per year; rating input score 0; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -20.8% per year; rating input score 0; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -8.6% per year; rating input score 0; 19th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 66.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $45K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 3 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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 — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 5/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 5/100.