Post Carbon Institute

Legal name: Metafoundation Dba Post Carbon Institute

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
651208462
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2024
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Corvallis, Oregon, USA
Phone
+1 (541) 566-8700
Rating
84
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Recycling Programs

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$803,401
Expenses
$1,067,252
Assets
$895,101
Liabilities
$43,211

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

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • JASON BRADFORD (PRESIDENT)
  • ASHER MILLER (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • ASHER MILLER (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $110,725 total reported compensation
  • RICHARD HEINBERG (SECRETARY): $97,081 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Post Carbon Institute’s mission is to lead the transition to a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable world by providing individuals and communities with the resources needed to understand and respond to the interrelated ecological, economic, energy, and equity crises of the 21st century.

What it reported doing in 2024

Awareness: the awareness program area is intended to reach a broad audience and deliver fundamental information people need in order to recognize and respond to the interrelated energy, environmental, economic, and equity crises of modern times. This program area contains the largest collection of pci's projects:- resilience.org is the leading online hub for the community resilience movement, where we publish original articles and republish relevant articles from other sites. - general communications is our project to deliver content to our audience through online events, speaking engagements, distribution of newsletters, social media posts, media outreach, and responses to public inquiries.- research, reflection, and reporting (3r) is our project to produce and promote articles that express pci's views on sustainability topics, energy, community resilience, and current events. It also includes keeping ourselves informed of emerging concepts.- podcasts is our project for delivering content developed for listeners. In 2024 we recorded new episodes of crazy town, and continued to platform three previously recorded shows: what could possibly go right?, holding the fire, and power: limits and prospects for human survival.- degrowth exploration is a one-year project to promote public awareness and understanding of degrowth economics.highlights of the awareness program area in 2024 include:- publication of 23 articles per week on resilience.org.- release of the sixth season (15 episodes) of the crazy town podcast (theme of "escape routes"), with over 494,000 total downloads of all episodes since the launch in 2019.- production of 12 monthly editions each of pci messenger and museletter, our content-rich newsletters that are distributed to members of our audience.- delivery of 9 presentations/interviews by pci staff.- publication of 26 total articles by pci staff, with 8 placed in external media outlets.- collaboration with c40 cities in researching and developing a podcast about herman daly and his ideas about the limits to growth and steady-state economics.

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 88% 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

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 92
  • Transparency & Controls: 75
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 21
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 88.7%; rating input score 89
  • Fundraising efficiency: $23 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: 0 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Claims monitoring procedures: Fail
    • Requires narrative reports: Fail
    • Conducts field audits: Fail
    • May suspend future funding: Fail
    • Requires financial reports: Fail
    • Conducts site visits: Fail
    • Requires grant agreements: Fail
    • May require repayment: Fail
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 76th 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: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -32.8%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.84; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 19.5%; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 8.7% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 0.9% per year; rating input score 100; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 3.5% per year; rating input score 100; 32nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 3 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 88.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $946K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $111K · 9 people listed
  • Consistency: 32 of 32 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and foreign activity
  • Filing history: 9 filing years from 2010 to 2024
  • 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.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight: 8 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 5/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 37/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 15/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 52/100.