National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
300656123
IRS 990 coverage
2017–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2015
Location
Fort Collins, CO, USA
Phone
9705664690
Rating
76
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Natural Resources Conservation and Protection

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$393,867
Expenses
$413,474
Assets
$141,019
Liabilities
$55,611

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

10 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • JOELLE MARIER (Executive Dir.): $77,868 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance supports stewardship organizations working within the National Wilderness Preservation System. We provide website resources, trainings, webinars, newsletters, produce the annual National Wilderness Workshop, and provide funding through challenge costs shares with the US Forest Service.

What it reported doing in 2025

NWSA offers many on-line and digital resources, including tookits for stewardship organization start-up, sharing of best practices, grant writing, and actions affecting wilderness stewardship. NWSA curates a monthly wilderness newsletter and hosts webinars to connect and educate the wilderness stewardship community. We also offer small grants, sourced from endowment funds, to assist new wilderness stewardship groups with start-up costs.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 97% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
Distribution model
Grant intermediary. The nonprofit sent 81% of its reported program spending out as grants.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 85
  • Transparency & Controls: 67
  • Accountability: 79
  • Sustainability: 20
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 89.6%; rating input score 90
  • Program expense ratio: 85.4%; rating input score 85
  • Fundraising efficiency: $25.9 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 26.6%; rating input score 27; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -5%; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.34; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.39; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 18.8%; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 4.7% per year; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 12.5% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 10% per year; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 89.6% of revenue deployed · 85.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $353K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $78K · 10 people listed
  • Consistency: 21 of 23 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes grants
  • Filing history: 7 filing years from 2017 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 8 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 7 filed related-organization links
  • 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.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

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

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 27/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 25/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 18/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 10/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 19/100.