Northern Jaguar Project

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
421554992
IRS 990 coverage
2009–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Tucson, AZ, USA
Phone
5208678380
Rating
84
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Wildlife Preservation, Protection

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$290,801
Expenses
$394,455
Assets
$2,436,798
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

11 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • BENJAMIN T WILDER (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • LYDIA LOZANO (EXECUTIVE DI): $23,976 total reported compensation
  • BENJAMIN T WILDER (PRESIDENT): $1,500 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 mission of the northern jaguar project is to preserve and recover the world's northermost population of the jaguar, its unique natural habitat, and native wildlife under its protection as a flagship, keystone, and umbrella species.

What it reported doing in 2025

Northern jaguar project - statement of program accomplishments october 2025 to december 2025. Renowned for their power, strength, beauty, and grace, jaguars are vanishing throught the americas. Nowhere is this more apparent than the us-mexico borderlands, where the northern jaguar project conducts research and conservation activities intended to safeguard these cats from illegal poaching, retaliatory killings, habitat loss, and other persistent threats. The centerpiece of our work is the 56,600-acre northern jaguar reserve -a remote, rugged, and exceedingly wild landscape where female jaguars can raise their young free from harm. Njp further works with researchers, ranchers, youth, and local communities to engender support for conserving jaguars, their habitat, and other species. Wildlife monitoring and research: scientific research is a centerpiece of our programs on and near the northern jaguar reserve, where our team of biologists and technicians maintained an array of over 150 motion-triggered cameras. Over the years, our research and monitoring efforts have led to more than 80 distinct jaguars documents on the reserve and neighboring viviendo con felinos ranches, with 2,500 jaguar images to date. In the 2023 fiscal year, 15 known jaguars moved across the entire protected area resulting in more than 200 records. We regularly visited the viviendo con felinos ranches to maintain cameras, retrieve photographs, and make sure agreements to not harm wildlife were honored. A total of five jaguars were recorded across viviendo con felinos ranches. Community outreach: our viviendo con felinos project extended protection for jaguars and other felines on 19 ranches, encompassing more than 125,000 total acres. We provided awards for feline photographs to promote the presence of living wildlife and worked with ranchers to minimize human-wildlife conflicts. We held our annual community-wide celebration and photo exhibit to honor the viviendo con felinos ranchers in october 2023. We also resumed our planned meetings and restoration workshops with the ranchers to work on conservation- oriended solutions to help maintain their livelihoods. Our eco-guardian club continued to engage kids with at-home activities through the publication of a monthly booklet, but we also resumed in-person activities with the club and in local elementary schools. Northern jaguar reserve: our field team insured the efficient management of the reserve with infrastructure work that included camp maintenance, upgrades to solar power and water systems, weather station repairs, and road maintenance to minimize erosion. Fences were repaired, and new fencing was installed to keep trespassing cows out. We focused buffelgrass removal efforts along the road and in selected priority areas. Stewardship and long-term management fund: we continued to grow our stewardship and long-term management fund to guarantee the reserve's future through sustainable management and restoration. With more than 88% of our initial 1 million goal in hand, this fund will create a permanent source of annual funding to cover the costs of basic protection and ensure proper guardianship of the reserve in perpetuity. Building our stewardship fund will continue to be a priority for additional funding in the years ahead. Grassroots leadership: operating with a binational approach has been a core principle of the northern jaguar project since our inception and a theme that runs deeply throughout our organization. We have and continue to spend time listening and learning to manage cross-border relationships that are uplifting and guided by local residentes and community-based partnerships. We have made a long-term commitment to this community where people's hearts are changing, and jaguars and other wild cats are finding safe spaces, room to roam, and time to rebound.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 94% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Grant intermediary. The nonprofit sent 60% of its reported program spending out as grants.

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: 88
  • Transparency & Controls: 83
  • Accountability: 86
  • Sustainability: 40
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 72.6%; rating input score 73
  • Fundraising efficiency: $58.5 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
    • Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
    • Requires narrative reports: Pass
    • Conducts field audits: Fail
    • May suspend future funding: Fail
    • Requires financial reports: Pass
    • Conducts site visits: Fail
    • Requires grant agreements: Fail
    • May require repayment: Fail
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 81st 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 6 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 67
    • 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: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -35.6%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 6.18; rating input score 83; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 6.5%; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 0.4% per year; rating input score 100; 30th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 4.6% per year; rating input score 100; 45th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 9.6% per year; rating input score 100; 61st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 72.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 6 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $287K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $24K · 11 people listed
  • Consistency: 24 of 24 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and foreign activity
  • Filing history: 17 filing years from 2009 to 2025
  • 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.

  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight: 5 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 6/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 29/100.