Solar Energy Industries Association

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
521072179
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Washington, DC, USA
Phone
2026820556
Rating confidence
Limited

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$37,611,689
Expenses
$36,116,201
Assets
$38,817,827
Liabilities
$17,323,435

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

116 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • ABIGAIL HOPPER (PRESIDENT AND CEO)
  • GIZELLE WRAY (VICE PRESIDENT, GENERAL COUNSEL)

Highest reported compensation

  • ABIGAIL HOPPER (PRESIDENT AND CEO): $1,328,032 total reported compensation
  • SEAN GALLAGHER (SVP POLICY): $550,888 total reported compensation
  • LISA BERWIN (CFO, SVP FINANCE & OPERATIONS): $473,124 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Seia is the driving force behind solar energy and storage, building a stronger solar industry to power america through advocacy and education. Representing organizations that promote, manufacture, install and support the development of solar energy, seia works with member companies to build jobs to champion solar use and remove market barriers.

What it reported doing in 2024

Public affairs: seia and the solar and storage industry experienced a variety of milestones in 2024, including celebrating the association's 50th anniversary and surpassing 5 million total solar installations nationwide. The organization's public affairs campaigns reflected these important achievements through strategic media engagement, enhanced digital storytelling tools, and a variety of resources to educate influencers and the general public. Seia also redesigned its flagship seia.org website and launched a podcast, good energy, in 2024, adding new outreach tools to share industry stories and insights with a broad public audience. Communications strategies were critical in establishing support amongst policymakers at all levels for solar and storage, including on targeted campaigns around trade actions, consumer protection, industry standards development, and more. Seia was also represented for the first time at the united nations framework convention on climate change (unfcc) conference of the parties (cop29), discussing the united states' role in a global clean energy transition and the importance of international partnerships in building a sustainable and reliable clean energy economy.

Operating model

Revenue model
Other-operating. 96% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
Distribution model
Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.

The verdict

- The available evidence is not sufficient to produce an overall rating for this filing. This is not a warning sign.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: NotEnoughData
  • Transparency & Controls: 89
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 40
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: Limited
  • Program expense ratio: Limited
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 98.5%; rating input score 98; 31st percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 4%; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.07; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.45; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 17.1%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: 21.4% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 21.6% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: Financial trends and filed revenue, expense, asset, and liability detail
  • Governance: 64 of 65 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments
  • Leadership: top reported pay $1.3M · 116 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $3.8M reported
  • Consistency: 12 of 12 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes executive pay and related organizations
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2020 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 15 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 4 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.
  • 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 9 not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 50/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 39/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 6/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 33/100.