Test Plot Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 923966997
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2025–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2024
- Location
- Berkeley, CA, USA
- Rating
- 75
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Environmental Education and Outdoor Survival Programs
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $182,954
- Expenses
- $141,160
- Assets
- $71,744
- Liabilities
- $33,028
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
4 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Jennifer Toy (Board President and Director)
People named in this filing
- Jennifer Toy (Board President and Director)
- Jennifer A Jones (Board Secretary)
- Max Kanter (Board Treasurer)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Test Plot is a nonprofit organization formed to support community-led land stewardship through the creation and long-term care of experimental native habitat gardens in degraded urban parks. The organization partners with local communities and land managers to restore ecological health build pollinator and wildlife habitat and cultivate lasting connections between people and place. Through monthly workdays paid fellowships and multi-year site commitments Test Plot cultivate a land ethic rooted in community care and ecological stewardship.
What it reported doing in 2025
Test Plot designs plants and maintains native plant gardens in underserved Los Angeles neighborhoods transforming neglected or degraded park land into thriving pollinator habitat and community green space. Across 17 plot locations the organization hosted monthly volunteer stewardship days engaged community members in hands-on ecological restoration and coordinated with city agencies and land managers to ensure coordinated land-care efforts. Program activities included invasive species removal native plant installation seed collection and propagation biodiversity monitoring and watershed education. Sites supported native bee butterfly and bird species contributing to regional habitat connectivity. The organization also trained paid youth fellows to build local capacity for ongoing land stewardship. Key outcomes: stewarded 108,000sf of land converting from flashy fuels to native habitat supervised 13,500 volunteer hours trained 90 youth participants in paid workforce positions published 13 log posts.
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
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of total spending goes to programs. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 65
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 48
- Growth: NotEnoughData
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 58.8%; rating input score 59
- Program expense ratio: 76.2%; rating input score 76
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 22.8%; rating input score 75; 75th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.51; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.46; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 40.9%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: Limited
- Asset growth: Limited
Details
- Where the money goes: 58.8% of revenue deployed · 76.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $108K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 4 people listed
- Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 59/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 38/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 9/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 8/100.