Leading Harvest

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
843256336
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
Location
Seattle, WA, USA
Phone
2062026311
Rating
64
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Land Resources Conservation

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,682,253
Expenses
$1,990,720
Assets
$4,342,502
Liabilities
$533,335

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

Leadership & pay

17 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • KENNY FAHEY (PRESIDENT AND CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • KENNY FAHEY (PRESIDENT AND CEO): $327,769 total reported compensation
  • REBECCA GILDINER (DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS): $219,550 total reported compensation
  • PETER MILLER (DIRECTOR, SUPPLY CHAIN ENGAGEMENT): $218,399 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Leading harvest provides educational programs and independently audited certification standards to improve sustainability outcomes and create transparency in agriculture.

What it reported doing in 2024

Leading harvest was founded with the goal of leading the creation and development of an all-encompassing sustainable farming management certification platform to advance sustainable agriculture and preserve and protect the natural environment and farming communities. An inaugural all-cropland standard was created and finalized in the form of the leading harvest farmland management program. Established in 2020, the organization quickly went to work enrolling participants and assisting them with establishing a relationship with a third party who would verify conformance to the standard in their own agricultural production. Leading harvest also engaged in educational programming to ensure that its participants and the broader stakeholder community could advance sustainable agriculture and access the technical knowledge embedded in the leading harvest certification program. There are currently 27 enrolled participants that represent over one thousand individual farms that collectively exceed 1.9 million acres in the united states across 31 states over 100 different row and permanent crop types.to maintain certification, participants are subject to regular surveillance audits and recertification audits. Enrollment and acreage have steadily increased since 2020.leading harvest created a group certification module in 2022 to allow landowners to certify as a group and to give smaller landowners access to third-party certification at competitive costs. Leading harvest also began work with major food and beverage brands to certify within its supply chains. Leading harvest has released educational materials to assist in the implementation of group certification, as well as cross-walked its standard to other reporting standards to harmonize sustainability. In 2023, leading harvest created the farmland management standard- pasture and livestock to be applied to animal agriculture operations.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 77% 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 - Most voting board members are independent and program spending has grown recently. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 53
  • Transparency & Controls: 55
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 64
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 51.5%; rating input score 52
  • Program expense ratio: 72%; rating input score 72
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • 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: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Grant itemization coverage: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • 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: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 25.8%; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.18; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.12; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 48.6%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 37% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 21.4% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 32.8% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 51.5% of revenue deployed · 72% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 12 of 13 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.4M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $328K · 17 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $126K reported
  • Consistency: 29 of 29 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2020 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 4 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.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 52/100.
  • High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
  • High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 0/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Whistleblower policy not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 1/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 55/100.