INaturalist

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
921296468
IRS 990 coverage
2023–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2022
Location
San Rafael, CA, USA
Phone
4153206269
Rating
68
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Natural Resources Conservation and Protection

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$9,011,958
Expenses
$3,957,362
Assets
$12,269,983
Liabilities
$1,388,334

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

Leadership & pay

19 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Scott Loarie (Executive Director, Secretary)
  • Dick Raines (Board Chair, President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Scott Loarie (Executive Director, Secretary): $229,503 total reported compensation
  • Patrick Leary (SR. Staff Software and Devops Eng.): $213,980 total reported compensation
  • Carrie Seltzer (Head of Engagement): $207,946 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

INaturalist's mission is to connect people to nature and advance biodiversity science and conservation. Its vision is a world where everyone can understand and sustain biodiversity through the practice of observing wild organisms and sharing information about them.

What it reported doing in 2025

INaturalist connects people to nature through open-source technology that enables individuals worldwide to record and learn about biodiversity while contributing to science and conservation. In 2025, iNaturalist advanced its exempt purpose across community engagement, scientific discovery, and global conservation: Community Engagement & Global Reach-Supported over 1.4 million active individuals who directly contributed biodiversity observations or verified identifications for others.-Engaged approximately 2 million monthly active users across the iNaturalist and Seek mobile applications, and over 4 million monthly website visitors.-Surpassed 250 million total verifiable global biodiversity observations recorded on the platform to date.Scientific Innovation & Open Data Access-Released 8 updated computer vision models and location-based geomodels assisting in the identification of over 110,000 taxa.-Launched the open-access iNaturalist Open Range Map Dataset, using machine learning across millions of observations to generate species range maps for over 100,000 taxa.-Enabled scientific research, resulting in over 1,100 peer-reviewed scientific publications citing or using iNaturalist data in 2025.Applied Conservation ImpactsiNaturalist data serves as vital infrastructure used by researchers, land managers, and conservationists to discover new species, track invasive and endangered taxa, refine species distributions, support protected area management, and inform climate change response.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 94% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
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 - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 50
  • Transparency & Controls: 70
  • Accountability: 94
  • Sustainability: 70
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 35%; rating input score 35
  • Program expense ratio: 75.2%; rating input score 75
  • Fundraising efficiency: $14.02 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • 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: 88.9%; rating input score 89; 21st percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 56.1%; rating input score 92; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.1; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.11; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 44.8%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 48% per year; rating input score 100; 96th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 26.9% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 52.9% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 35% of revenue deployed · 75.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 9 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $3M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $230K · 19 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 2 contractors listed · $363K reported
  • Consistency: 32 of 32 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 12 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.
  • 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.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 35/100.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 48/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 2/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 46/100.