Future 500

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
943077353
IRS 990 coverage
2011–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
San Francisco, CA, USA
Phone
8006552020
Rating
68
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,019,796
Expenses
$960,886
Assets
$1,452,351
Liabilities
$369,339

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

6 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • WILLIAM SHIREMAN (PRESIDENT)
  • ERIK WOHLGEMUTH (CEO/DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • ERIK WOHLGEMUTH (CEO/DIRECTOR): $225,693 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

See attached statementprimary missionfuture 500 builds trust between corporations, advocates, investors, and philanthropists to advance business as a force for good. We are experts in stakeholder engagement with over 25 years of experience depolarizing conflict by building alliances between adversarial stakeholders. We utilize market-based approaches to solve social and environmental issues around energy & climate, food & water, materials & supply chains, and people & power. Through genuine stakeholder engagement, future 500 aligns the power of the private sector with the purpose of its most critical stakeholders. We envision a world that realizes sustainable economic growth by addressing social and environmental externalities with market-based solutions. We unite the corporate, philanthropic, and NGO sectors to break through gridlock, encourage thoughtful dialogue, and achieve broad systemic change. We find that uncommon ideas often reveal uncommon solutions.

What it reported doing in 2024

Energy/climatefuture 500 views the energy transition as a critical thread across all our sustainability projects. To that end, our organization continuously seeks to build partnerships with energy companies and activists. We work across several energy sectors, including, but not limited to, coal, natural gas, oil refining and exploration, and biofuels. We believe that smart, comprehensive energy policy can help drive systemic change down the supply chain. We believe that a price on carbon is an economic, security, fiscal, and environmental imperative. To help drive this effort, we have crafted two core policy principles that can unite the cross-sectoral political support needed for climate policy that is friendly to people, the economy, and the environment. Future 500 has brought together companies, ngos, investors, and philanthropists to support this policy. We see the energy transition toward a low-carbon future as a dynamic and evolving arena where we seek to play an important role in connecting corporations to their critical stakeholders. We believe that direct engagement in an increasingly polarized world will help us move past conflict from the community level to the global level to solve some of our society's most pressing energy issues.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 93% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
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

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and program spending has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 62
  • Transparency & Controls: 79
  • Accountability: 80
  • Sustainability: 45
  • Growth: 20

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 67.5%; rating input score 67
  • Program expense ratio: 74%; rating input score 74
  • Fundraising efficiency: $0.83 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 83.3%; rating input score 83; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • 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: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 5.8%; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.51; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.25; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 23.5%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -1.2% per year; rating input score 0; 14th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -2.3% per year; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 8.4% per year; rating input score 100; 53rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 67.5% of revenue deployed · 74% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 6 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $711K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $226K · 6 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 24 of 24 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 11 filing years from 2011 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 3/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 52/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 56/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 11/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 27/100.