The CLEO Institute

Legal name: The Cleo Institute Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
273185735
IRS 990 coverage
2012–2024
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2015, Form 990-N 2011
Location
Miami, FL, USA
Phone
3052840908
Rating
81
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Standard
Sector
Environmental Education and Outdoor Survival Programs

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,589,239
Expenses
$2,761,294
Assets
$757,089
Liabilities
$141,900

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

Leadership & pay

15 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • LINDSEY WOLFSON GOLDSMITH (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • YOCA ARDITI-ROCHA (EXECUTIVE DI): $191,482 total reported compensation
  • OLIVIA COLLINS (VP OF PROGRA): $139,117 total reported compensation
  • RAYMER MAGUIRE (DIRECTOR OF): $112,838 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

To educate and empower communities to demand climate action, ensuring a safe, just, and healthy environment for all.

What it reported doing in 2024

The cleo institute is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan organization exclusively dedicated to climate crisis education and advocacy. Founded in 2010, we work with communities across Florida to build climate literacy and mobilize climate action for a safe, just, and healthy environment for all. The cleo is a trusted leader with 14+ years of experience building community engagement around climate issues in Florida. Cleo is recognized by miami-dade county & others as the go-to resource for climate literacy & equity even receiving the honor of white house champion of the environment in 2013. Since our founding, we have trained 12 south Florida municipalities & hundreds of elected officials, nonprofits, and foundations on climate justice risks & solutions. Our main areas of focus are: climate education, climate and health, climate justice, climate policy and advocacy, disaster preparedness and energy justice. Impacts reached over 14,000 people through more than 472 trainings and community events. Trained over 4797 students through in-classroom trainings, reached more than 850 teachers, and conducted 6 trainings in 5 cities for our cleo speakers network. Engaged 180 elected officials across Florida and nationwide. Grew our gencleo membership to over 7100 members across 9 campuses statewide media wins over 60 press mentions reached 1.1 million people on social media & campaigns

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 93% 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 expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 78
  • Transparency & Controls: 80
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 18
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 83.6%; rating input score 84
  • Program expense ratio: 77.9%; rating input score 78
  • Fundraising efficiency: $12.04 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Pass
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -6.6%; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.27; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.19; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 19.6%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 25.9% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 21.2% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 20.2% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 4 programs and campaigns described on the official site
  • Where the money goes: 83.6% of revenue deployed · 77.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $2.2M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $191K · 15 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 27 of 27 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 10 filing years from 2012 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 6 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 44/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 18/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 8/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 13/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 45/100.