Friends of Corte Madera Creek Watershed

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
680365270
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2024
Location
Larkspur, CA, USA
Phone
4154565052
Rating
81
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Natural Resources Conservation and Protection

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$147,128
Expenses
$101,302
Assets
$207,928
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

1 person listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Sandra Guldman (President)

People named in this filing

  • Sandra Guldman (President)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

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

Overview

Mission

Protect and enhance natural ecosystems. Increase public awareness, knowledge, and scientific understanding. Promote diverse and self-sustaining populations of native plants, habitats, fish, and wildlife. Improve water qualiaty. Assure adequate fresh water. Promote responsible flood management.

What it reported doing in 2025

Habitat Restoration: Implementation of revegetation plan for the Lower COM hHabitat Restoration Project in cooperations with the Marin County Flood Control District; local sponsor of the Invasive Spartina Project , a multi-agency project to eliminate invasive cord grasses from San Francisco Bay; native plant purchases for habitat restoration at Hal Brown Park in collaboration with Marin County Parks.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 77% 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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and program spending has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 77
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 88
  • Sustainability: 73
  • Growth: 20

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 66.9%; rating input score 67
  • Program expense ratio: 95%; rating input score 95
  • Fundraising efficiency: $43.71 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 5 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 71
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Fail
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 31.1%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.05; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -13% per year; rating input score 0; 9th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -20.5% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 15% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 66.9% of revenue deployed · 95% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 5 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $96K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 1 people listed
  • Consistency: 24 of 24 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2020 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • 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.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.