Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN: 810616238
IRS 990 coverage: 2014–2024
Forms available: Form 990 2024
Location: Washington, DC, USA
Phone: 2023381300
Rating: 75
Verdict: SUPPORTED
Rating confidence: Moderate
Sector: Promotion of International Understanding

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue: $13,022,902
Expenses: $9,294,625
Assets: $15,668,160
Liabilities: $1,160,734

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

Leadership & pay

13 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

DURWOOD ZAELKE (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

DURWOOD ZAELKE (PRESIDENT): $330,241 total reported compensation
ROMINA PICOLOTTI (SENIOR POLICY ADVISOR): $323,586 total reported compensation
RICHARD FERRIS (SENIOR COUNSEL): $268,991 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Igsd's mission is to promote fast climate mitigation to slow near-term warming and self-propagating climate feedbacks, avoid or at least delay catastrophic climate and societal tipping points, and limit global temperatures to 1.5 cor at least keep this temperature guardrail in sight and limit overshoot.

What it reported doing in 2024

Sustainable developmentthe institute work to ensure fast cuts to the non-carbon dioxide climate pollutants and other fast climate mitigation strategies to slow near-term warming and self-amplifying climate feedbacks, avoid or at least delay catastrophic tipping points, and limit global temperature rise.

Operating model

Revenue model: Donor-supported. 99% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model: Direct operator. The filing allocates 93% 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. Total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown and reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.

Rating breakdown

Financial Efficiency: 72
Transparency & Controls: 65
Accountability: 92
Sustainability: 67
Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

Mission deployment rate: 71.1%; rating input score 71
Program expense ratio: 99.1%; rating input score 99
Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd 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: 1 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 12
- Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
- Requires narrative reports: Limited
- Conducts field audits: Limited
- May suspend future funding: Limited
- Requires financial reports: Limited
- Conducts site visits: Limited
- Requires grant agreements: Limited
- May require repayment: Limited
Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

Independent voting board: 85.7%; rating input score 86; 19th 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: 28.6%; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings
Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.69; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.07; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
Officer compensation ratio: 19.8%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

Program expense growth: 6.2% per year; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings
Revenue growth: 8.9% per year; rating input score 100; 69th percentile among comparable filings
Asset growth: 18.8% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings

Details

Where the money goes: 71.1% of revenue deployed · 99.1% of spending went to programs
Governance: 6 of 7 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $9.2M in reported program spending
Leadership: top reported pay $330K · 13 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
Highest-paid contractors: 4 contractors listed · $847K reported
Consistency: 31 of 31 current checks pass
Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, and executive pay
Filing history: 11 filing years from 2014 to 2024
Contacts: How to reach this organization
Money network: 9 filed money-flow records
Related organizations: 2 filed related-organization links
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 — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 56/100.
High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 4/100.