Mountain Lion Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
943015360
IRS 990 coverage
2015–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Sacramento, CA, USA
Phone
9164422666
Rating
85
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Alliance/Advocacy Organizations

Reported finances

Revenue
$725,489
Expenses
$1,217,258
Assets
$2,379,810
Liabilities
$79,713

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

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Chris Tromborg (Vice President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Brent Lyles (Executive): $102,292 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

The Mountain Lion Foundation's mission is to ensure that mountain lions survive and flourish in the wild. We do this work by championing broad protections for mountain lions and their habitats across the United States, fostering appreciation of mountain lions and the ecological significance, and cultivating proactive, community-based co-existence for people and lions.

What it reported doing in 2024

COEXISTENCE THE - Mountain Lion Foundation cultivates proactive, community-based coexistence for the protection of both people and lions. We work in communities across the United States to highlight the fact that living with lions is not just possible, but simple. The Mountain Lion Foundation provides information, tools, and advice about protecting lions to a range of people families, farmers and ranchers, state agency personnel, journalists, rural decision makers, and more to help communities live peacefully among lions, address cougar encounters as they occur and give mountain lions everything they need to flourish. In fiscal year 2024-2025, the Mountain Lion Foundation responded with protective information and advice to many dozens of incidents across the country such as lion sightings, suspected depredations, and lion mortalities. We also disseminated information to hobby farmers and other members of the producer community that helped them coexist peacefully with their lion neighbors.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 92% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 84% 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 85
  • Transparency & Controls: 89
  • Accountability: 88
  • Sustainability: 31
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 77.9%; rating input score 78
  • Fundraising efficiency: $9.01 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 97.9%; rating input score 98; 46th 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: 5 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 71
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -67.8%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.96; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 8.4%; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 10.7% per year; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 0.6% per year; rating input score 100; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 12% per year; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 77.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 5 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $948K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $102K · 9 people listed
  • Consistency: 28 of 29 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 10 filing years from 2015 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 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.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 34/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 2/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 42/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 57/100.