Geoscienceworld
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 201308252
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Mclean, VA, USA
- Phone
- 7036714791
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Geology
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $10,028,003
- Expenses
- $9,086,175
- Assets
- $8,781,705
- Liabilities
- $4,782,039
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
17 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- PHOEBE MCMELLON (CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- PHOEBE MCMELLON (CEO): $422,982 total reported compensation
- CHRISTOPHER S STRAUB (COO): $405,631 total reported compensation
- ANGELA ANDERSON (DIRECTOR OF SOCIETY SERVIC): $215,478 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To be the essential resource and partner to independent society publishers and the larger earth science research community, advancing knowledge and insights for the benefit of people and the planet.
What it reported doing in 2024
The organization has built a comprehensive, widely-accessible easy to use online resource for peer-reviewed journals as well as books, field guides, maps, databases and other information relative to the geological and earth sciences.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 87% 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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 79
- Transparency & Controls: 71
- Accountability: 91
- Sustainability: 45
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 86%; rating input score 86
- Program expense ratio: 94.8%; rating input score 95
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- 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: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 9.4%; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.97; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.54; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 18.8%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 3% per year; rating input score 100; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 6.4% per year; rating input score 100; 55th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 12.6% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 86% of revenue deployed · 94.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $8.6M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $423K · 17 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $591K reported
- Consistency: 32 of 32 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes executive pay
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 7 filed money-flow records
- 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 9 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 35/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 5/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 26/100.