River Legacy Foundation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 752215558
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Arlington, TX, USA
- Phone
- 8178606852
- Rating
- 86
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $992,477
- Expenses
- $1,081,290
- Assets
- $2,680,682
- Liabilities
- $217,497
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
19 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- ROBERT BLAKE (PRESIDENT)
People named in this filing
- ROBERT BLAKE (PRESIDENT)
- CHRIS BOOKOUT (DIRECTOR)
- SAMUEL BRIONES (DIRECTOR)
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
The purpose of the river legacy foundation is to provide extroardianry environmental education programs and authentic nature experiences to students in north Texas. State science standards for all grade levels places increased emphasis on hands-on and outdoor investigations which make the river legacy environmental education programs more important than ever. The river legacy foundation's mission is to preserve and enhance land along the trinity river and its tributaries as an extraordinary educational, recreational and natural resource.
What it reported doing in 2024
The river legacy foundation serves 14,700 north Texas families and children annually through its field investigation programs and more than 40,000 north texans visit the living science center each year. Not only do we conserve our surrounding natural wonderland, but we consider river legacy parks a "classroom without walls" to educate young people on the environment, water, wildlife and habitats. Our environmental education programs foster sensitivity to, and an appreciation for, the natural world. Our environment education programs, festivals, summer classes, pre-school, home school and after school programs offer a rich curriculum to students of all income levels in north Texas. Research suggests children who learn in nature can increase their science testing by 27%. Science is now proving what the river legacy foundation knew all along environmental education helps kids learn science and improve their test scores.
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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 80
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 94
- Sustainability: 44
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 89.8%; rating input score 90
- Program expense ratio: 80.9%; rating input score 81
- Fundraising efficiency: $6.13 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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 7 controls in place; rating input score 86
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- 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: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -8.9%; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.48; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.08; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 3.6% per year; rating input score 100; 35th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 2% per year; rating input score 100; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 4.1% per year; rating input score 100; 35th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 89.8% of revenue deployed · 80.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 19 of 19 board members independent · 6 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $875K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 19 people listed
- Consistency: 32 of 32 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 14 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.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 23/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 18/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Form 990 shared with the board not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 45/100.