NSF
Legal name: Nsf International
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 381428955
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Location
- Ann Arbor, MI, USA
- Phone
- 7347698010
- Rating
- 76
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Research Institutes and Public Policy Analysis
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $203,119,566
- Expenses
- $176,788,512
- Assets
- $521,858,934
- Liabilities
- $121,887,543
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
26 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- PEDRO SANCHA (PRESIDENT CEOBOD MEMBER)
Highest reported compensation
- PEDRO SANCHA (PRESIDENT CEOBOD MEMBER): $3,115,151 total reported compensation
- LICHUN L MA (VP CICIO TO 080924): $2,148,787 total reported compensation
- DAVID R PURKISS (VP GLOBAL WATER): $1,327,655 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To protect and improve human and planet health.
What it reported doing in 2024
The commercial business includes both standards and toxicology. Under the standards program, nsf facilitates the process of developing new standards and maintenance of our existing standards, which is over 80 published documents. Our team works to ensure that all policies and procedures are followed and that our stakeholders are equipped to have conversations leading to consensus; this includes but is not limited to schedule/coordination of meetings, sharing essential documentation (reference standards, data, meeting summaries, etc.), committee membership recruitment and leading the balloting process for new standards and revisions to published standards. The nsf toxicology business provides chemical hazard and risk characterization in the water, food, pesticides and consumer products spaces. Services include evaluation of product risk or safety, expert evaluation of exposure based on intended use of product, as well as associated risk characterization based on chemical hazards including product ingredients and contaminants.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Other-operating. 98% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 61% for direct work, 0% for grants, and 39% for affiliated organizations.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - 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 reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 61
- Transparency & Controls: 81
- Accountability: 94
- Sustainability: 67
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 65.1%; rating input score 65
- Program expense ratio: 74.4%; rating input score 74
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 5 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 83
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Pass
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: 1 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 12
- Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
- 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; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 90%; rating input score 90; 38th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 13%; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.95; rating input score 75; 75th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.23; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 8.4%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 3.5% per year; rating input score 100; 27th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 5.7% per year; rating input score 100; 49th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 6.8% per year; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 5 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 65.1% of revenue deployed · 74.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 9 of 10 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 6 filed program accomplishments · $131.6M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $3.1M · 26 people listed · 5 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $9.9M reported
- Consistency: 41 of 41 current checks pass
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes foreign activity, grants, executive pay, and related organizations
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 37 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 15 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight: 7 of 8 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 5/100.