Friends of Mission Trail Nature Preserve

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
900937243
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2018–2025
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2017
Location
Carmel, CA, USA
Phone
8315956458
Rating
86
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Environmental Quality, Protection, and Beautification N.E.C.

Reported finances

Revenue
$19,588
Expenses
$38,948
Assets
$156,342

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

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Greg D'Ambrosio (Vice President)
  • Karen Ferlito (President)

People named in this filing

  • Greg D'Ambrosio (Vice President)
  • Marsha Zelus (Director)
  • Mary Anne Lloyd (Director)

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

Friends of Mission Trail Nature Preserve ("FOMTNP") was formed in 2009, and was formally incorporated in December, 2012 as a non-profit corporation. It became an official support group of the City in 2014. The purpose of the FOMTNP is to support the City in implementing the Mission Trail Nature Preserve Master Plan, including the removal of invasive flora. Since 2009, FOMTNP has, among other works, conducted, on a regular basis (now on the second Saturday on each month), work parties in the Preserve resulting in thousands of volunteer hours of work, removing invasive plants from the Preserve by hand and performing other light maintenance.

What it reported doing in 2025

The Friends of Mission Trail Nature Preserve continued their stewardship of the preserve, contributing labor, funding, and coordination with the city to implement our Annual Work Program. Highlights included: Continued removal of invasive plants with the goals of both promoting the growth of native plants and reducing wildfire risk. In particular, this year we did extensive removal of both poison hemlock and wild radish, both of which dry out to become fire fuel. In addition, we continued to remove acacia sprouts and highly flammable genista.Planting of native grasses to reestablish a marsh meadow near one of the park entrances.Planting of native trees in an area recently cleared of invasives.Preparing a 2,500 square foot site for new redwood plantings.Creating our first educational sign board to teach visitors about the root system of our native Monterey Pine trees.Closing a dangerous section of one of our trails and rerouting that trail, which involved building a new footbridge.Collaborating with the city and the fire department on their Fire Defense Plan, influencing that plan to be more protective of native species. Related to this, we widened the main trail to improve accessibility for fire-fighting equipment.

Operating model

Revenue model
Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent revenue detail to tell how this nonprofit funds its work.
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. Expenses are high relative to revenue and revenue has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 96
  • Transparency & Controls: 82
  • Sustainability: 34
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 88.2%; rating input score 88

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Limited

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -98.8%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.01; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 4.2% per year; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -2% per year; rating input score 0; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 15.8% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 88.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $34K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 9 people listed
  • Consistency: 6 of 6 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 2 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 7 filing years from 2018 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • 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 8/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.