Public Lands Foundation Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 541437054
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Arlington, VA, USA
- Phone
- 7025861547
- Rating
- 81
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Alliance/Advocacy Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $146,708
- Expenses
- $143,960
- Assets
- $431,347
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
30 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Mary Jo Rugwell (President)
- Don Simpson (Vice President)
People named in this filing
- Tom Allen (Director at Large)
- Dean Bibles (Director at Large)
- Ray Brady (Secretary & VP of DC Affairs)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Advocate for professional management of public lands.
What it reported doing in 2024
Educated members on land issues and provided information to members on related issues. Held quarterly conference calls with Board members and an annual meeting for members to network and share views on BLM issues. This years annual meeting theme was Recreation and National Landscape Conservation System Management. The annual meeting had a range of local experts that discussed recreation, partnerships and permits. The general message was the importance of developing partnership efforts between the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), State recreation agencies, recreation stakeholder interest groups, and public land users to address ever-increasing recreation demands on the public lands. The importance of developing strong relationships with local communities and the value of Friends organizations to support the work of BLM in management of National Conservation Areas and Monuments was also addressed
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 79
- Transparency & Controls: 86
- Accountability: 76
- Sustainability: 59
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 78.5%; rating input score 78
- Program expense ratio: 73%; rating input score 73
- Fundraising efficiency: $3,891.74 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 99; 99th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- 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: 3 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 43
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- 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: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 1.9%; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 3; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 6.1% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 1.4% per year; rating input score 100; 31st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 2.7% per year; rating input score 100; 37th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 78.5% of revenue deployed · 73% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 29 of 29 board members independent · 3 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $105K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 30 people listed
- Consistency: 22 of 23 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 7 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 44/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.