Lopez Community Land Trust
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 911469975
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Lopez Island, WA, USA
- Phone
- 3604683723
- Rating
- 88
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Housing Development, Construction, Management
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $3,601,294
- Expenses
- $3,029,576
- Assets
- $12,024,582
- Liabilities
- $1,687,151
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
12 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- SANDY BISHOP (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- SANDY BISHOP (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $101,747 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Lclt is a 501(c)3 non-profit that builds a diverse, sustainable lopez island community through affordable housing, sustainable agriculture, and other dynamic rural development programs.
What it reported doing in 2025
Affordable housingover the past several decades, the character of lopez has changed significantly. Sjc has the largest housing affordability gap in wa state, with some of the state's highest housing costs and lowest wages. In response to the growing need for permanently affordable housing, the lclt was established in 1989.today, lclt owns and stewards roughly 37.5 acres of land dedicated to affordable housing. These properties include seven limited equity housing cooperatives (lehcs) comprising 53 homes, one fee simple home, and seven rental units. Lclt develops each affordable home and, upon completion, transfers ownership of the homes to either the applicable lehc association or, in the case of a fee simple home, to an individual homeowner. Lclt permanently retains ownership of the land beneath each home and leases it to the lehc association or homeowner through a renewable 99-year ground lease, ensuring the homes remain permanently affordable for future generations. During 2025, lclt completed construction of its seventh lehc neighborhood, consisting of six homes. Ownership of the homes was transferred to the newly formed oystercatcher association in november. By year-end, lclt also achieved substantial completion of a new fee simple home and began the renovation and upgrade of a four-bedroom house as a rental.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 75% 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
STRONG - 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 some filed totals do not add up.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 90
- Transparency & Controls: 87
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 67
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 83.7%; rating input score 84
- Program expense ratio: 97.9%; rating input score 98
- Fundraising efficiency: $299.75 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 94; 94th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 94.1%; rating input score 94; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 86.5%; rating input score 86; 30th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- 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: 15.9%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.97; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.14; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 3.4%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 16.5% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 14.3% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 12.5% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 83.7% of revenue deployed · 97.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $3M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $102K · 12 people listed
- Highest-paid contractors: 3 contractors listed · $519K reported
- Consistency: 33 of 34 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 5 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
- 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 42/100.