Rivanna Conservation Alliance
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 520194008
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2015–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2014
- Location
- Charlottesville, VA, USA
- Phone
- 4349774837
- Rating
- 82
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Natural Resources Conservation and Protection
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $699,088
- Expenses
- $642,944
- Assets
- $456,192
- Liabilities
- $994
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- LISA WITTENBORN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- LISA WITTENBORN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $69,129 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Working with the community to conserve the rivanna river and its watershed through water quality monitoring, education, restoration, and stewardship.
What it reported doing in 2024
The rivanna conservation alliance (rca) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose programs are guided by the belief that healthy waterways and green spaces are essential to a vibrant and resilient community. Rca formed in 2016 when two long-standing organizations, the rivanna conservation society and streamwatch, joined together. This merger brought together a scientifically rigorous volunteer-supported water quality monitoring program with a grassroots organization focused on community outreach, education, watershed stewardship, advocacy, and restoration. Today, rca serves as the local voice of the river and its programs actively engage up to 1,000 community volunteers each year, connecting them to our streams and rivers to promote awareness, appreciation, and stewardship. Rca is the only nonprofit in Virginia to be certified by the department of environmental quality at the hightest level for bacteria and biological water quality monitoring. Local, state, and federal government agencies use rcas data to inform their environmental decision-making and community members use it to guide their decisions about safe river recreation. Rca leads a range of outdoor educational experiences, including watershed exploration field trips for over 1,200 middle school students each year and the annual rivanna riverfest. Rca carries out restoration projects to reduce water pollution and restore the health of our waterways and riverside forests. Rca also organizes volunteer workdays throughout the year focused on cleaning up streams, managing invasive plants, and planting native trees.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 88% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 78
- Transparency & Controls: 86
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 49
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 78%; rating input score 78
- Program expense ratio: 84.8%; rating input score 85
- Fundraising efficiency: $18.22 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 12th 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: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- 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: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 8%; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.71; rating input score 32; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 10.8%; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 14.3% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 12.4% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 6.5% per year; rating input score 100; 45th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 78% of revenue deployed · 84.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $546K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $69K · 10 people listed
- Consistency: 26 of 27 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 9 filing years from 2015 to 2024
- 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.
- 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.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 56/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 57/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 32/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 34/100.