North American Sustainable Refrigeration
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 474473961
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2019–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2018
- Location
- Mill Valley, CA, USA
- Phone
- 5038694191
- Rating
- 83
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Environmental Education and Outdoor Survival Programs
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $3,194,710
- Expenses
- $2,870,600
- Assets
- $1,741,924
- Liabilities
- $1,006,266
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
20 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Danielle C Wright (Executive Director)
- Bryan Beitler (President & CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- Richard Walker (Training Director): $188,597 total reported compensation
- Danielle C Wright (Executive Director): $180,139 total reported compensation
- Ky Gray (Senior Program Manager): $157,592 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To conduct research and educate the public on subjects useful to the individual and beneficial to the community regarding refrigeration methods and ways to reduce the environmental impacts of refrigeration.
What it reported doing in 2025
The North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council is a 501(c)(3) environmental nonprofit that partners with the grocery refrigeration industry to advance climate-friendly natural refrigerants and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from traditional HFC refrigerants. Working with stakeholders including service contractors, manufacturers, engineering firms, schools, utilities, and over 55,000 food retail locations, the organization addresses cost, workforce, and market-readiness barriers to adopting natural refrigerant technologies. Through its funding initiatives, the organization accelerated natural refrigerant installations by serving as third-party administrator of the California F-gas Reduction Incentive Program, helping award approximately $13.7 million in incentives and providing technical assistance to 46 projects replacing high-GWP HFC equipment with ultra-low GWP refrigeration systems. It also managed and administered $350,000 in grants from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to support two Bronx supermarkets in under-resourced communities transitioning to climate-friendly propane (R-290) systems. To advance market readiness and industry alignment, the organization delivered education, technical guidance, and market insights. It formed a CO2 Education Committee to develop a CO2 manual and technician certification program and, through its CO2 Technical Committee, drafted guidance on critical sensors, start-up and commissioning, and refrigerant release events. The organization surveyed 18 major U.S. food retailers representing over 29,000 store locations to forecast refrigerant use and system plans through 2029 and hosted 10 expert-led webinars highlighting technologies and services that support the transition to natural refrigerants. Through its R-TRADE workforce development initiative, the organization addressed the nationwide shortage of refrigeration technicians by focusing on recruitment, training, and retention. It delivered 8,533 hours of free training on CO2 and propane technologies through five Natural Refrigerant Training Summit events and related technical training programs, collectively training nearly 1,500 technicians on natural refrigerant systems. The organization launched rtrade.org as a dedicated workforce development platform and hosted four student networking sessions connecting over 200 students with industry stakeholders to support entry into the refrigeration field.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 65% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 77% for direct work, and 23% for grants.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 86
- Transparency & Controls: 75
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 35
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 82%; rating input score 82
- Program expense ratio: 91.3%; rating input score 91
- Fundraising efficiency: $282.96 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 94; 94th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 75th 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: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 10.1%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.61; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.58; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 27.7%; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 46.2% per year; rating input score 100; 96th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 33.3% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 33.5% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 82% of revenue deployed · 91.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 13 of 13 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $2.6M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $189K · 20 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $162K reported
- Consistency: 31 of 31 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 7 filing years from 2019 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 7 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 2 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 — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 20/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Form 990 shared with the board not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 56/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 9/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 13/100.