Peninsula Open Space Trust

What it reported doing in 2024

Community outreach and education: post continued our community growth and engagement efforts in fiscal year 2025 growing the list of community members by 36.4k new contacts. These contacts were gathered via content, general awareness paid advertising, social media, and events. Post's community database now includes 146k community members. This is 9% larger than the previous year. Content marketing campaigns (guides, blogs, general awareness, and annual giving) generated 67% of all new contacts, followed by outreach events at 28%. Contacts engage with the post website via the monthly email newsletter, which featured about 40 new stories over the year, as well as annual giving campaigns. The website saw 644k total... Users in fy 2025.post's social media following grew significantly due to paid advertising, content production, and experimentation. Collectively, our social media channels grew from 78k to 99k followers (+27% yoy). Overall there were 12% more impressions, 13% more reach, and 30% more "clicks" from paid social media which in turn led to increased engagement on post's website for downloads, informational visits, donations, and the like. Post hosted 100 public events that generated 9,303 new contacts (+23% yoy). Roughly 11,500 people attended post's public online and in-person events in fy 2025 (+20% yoy). In addition, post staff and volunteers interacted with about 5,400 people by tabling at large regional festivals and partner events, doubling our in-person outreach.in the media, post was mentioned in a total of 517 articles with an estimated reach (total subscribers across all outlets) of 3.5b. Due to the increased number of transactions in fy25, we increased press coverage 136% yoy. Our largest stories with the highest ad equivalency value (aev) were sargent ranch ($3.4m), pescadero ranch ($1.1m), san gregorio ranch ($1.13m), and the mountain meadow property sale ($1m). Importantly, we achieved strong message pull-through aligned with our mission and strategic plan. These messages included wildlife corridor and habitat protection, public access and coastal preservation, climate resilience and water resource protection, and partnerships//collaboration with local governments, tribal groups, and other nonprofits.the post marketing and communications team also engaged in a variety of innovations and longer-term projects such as a plan to overhaul post's primary website, refresh of post's monthly email newsletter, and expansion of social media channels and paid media.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 61.5%; rating input score 62
• Program expense ratio: 81%; rating input score 81
• Fundraising efficiency: $13.05 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 94.1%; rating input score 94; 28th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 6 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Compensation committee: Pass
  • Independent consultant: Pass
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
  • Written employment contract: Pass
  • Compensation survey or study: Pass
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: 99.3%; rating input score 99; 39th 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; 77th 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: 30.3%; rating input score 92; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 8.61; rating input score 90; 90th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 6.9%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 8.5% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 8.1% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 2.9% per year; rating input score 100; 20th percentile among comparable filings