Little Falls Watershed Alliance Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 262612775
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2020–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2023, Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2016
- Location
- Chevy Chase, MD, USA
- Phone
- 3015381555
- Rating
- 76
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Water Resource, Wetlands Conservation and Management
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $188,070
- Expenses
- $129,762
- Assets
- $167,868
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
9 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Karen Thornton (President)
- John Drake (Vice President)
- Sarah Morse (Executive Director)
People named in this filing
- Karen Thornton (President)
- John Drake (Vice President)
- Sara Robinson (Secretary)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
LFWAs mission is to restore and protect the Little Falls watershed, a vulnerable natural ecosystem nestled in Montgomery County, Maryland and Washington, D.C. It strives to restore and sustain the water quality, natural habitat, health and integrity of the watershed. It develops and applies diverse, innovative and successful programs to accomplish these goals; builds awareness about the importance of these natural spaces to our environmentally sustainable future; and ensures that creeks and their surrounding natural environment survive and thrive for their own sake, and the enjoyment and utilization of current and future generations.
What it reported doing in 2025
Habitat restoration: LFWA leads volunteers in removing invasive species, planting native plants, and other measures to improve the ecology of the area surrounding Little Falls Branch. In 2025, LFWA hosted __ work days, saving over ____ trees and engaging ____ volunteers.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% 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 program spending has grown recently. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 56
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 60
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 48.3%; rating input score 48
- Program expense ratio: 69.8%; rating input score 70
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 31%; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.29; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 31.9%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 20.5% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 21.9% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 23% per year; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 48.3% of revenue deployed · 69.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $91K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 9 people listed
- Consistency: 7 of 7 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2020 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 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.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 48/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 11/100.