The Grand Canyon Trust Inc

What it reported doing in 2025

Land: through the work of our cultural landscapes, grand canyon, energy, and Utah and Arizona public lands programs, the trust strives to effect change in concert with tribal communities and nations. We authentically support tribal leadership and always support tribal sovereignty. Support for tribal communities and nations serves as the cornerstone of the trust's conservation work on the Colorado plateau. Throughout 2025, we have continued to advocate for the continued protection of baaj nwaavjo i'tah kukveni - ancestral footprints of the grand canyon, and grand staircase-escalante national monuments. At the request of tribal leaders and working with each inter-tribal coalition, the trust helped convene an inter-monument, intertribal gathering that included leaders and staff from all three of our priority monuments (bears ears, baaj nwaavjo i'tah kukveni, and grand staircase-escalante). The gathering led to a commitment to greater communication between tribal coalitions and an interest in information-sharing via field tours.in the grand canyon space, we grew participation in the intertribal centennial conversations group (iccg) grassroots body, both in numbers and with increased youth representation. This is all the more important as grand canyon national park pivots to working exclusively with tribal leaders instead of grassroots leaders to manage a landscape with complex histories where community and cultural voices also matter. But the most significant grand canyon-related work in 2025 was responding to the aftermath of the dragon bravo and white sage fires, which burned across 200,000 acres of the north rim and nearly overtook kane ranch. We engaged readily with agency staff and other partners to track damage and begin proactive planning for the rebuild and restoration of the area. We are working to support a rebuilding process that includes tribes and native businesses and that is locally informed.public lands: in Utah, our work contributed to the protection of old-growth trees across 91,557 acres of roadless areas on national forests, and we helped prevent post-fire seeding of harmful non-native species across 30,364 acres. Our roadless rule advocacy filled an important niche, focusing on Utah forests and offering support for Utah tribal leaders. In Arizona, we facilitated the development of a 10-year-plan for post-fire forest restoration on the kaibab plateau, which has now been agreed to by a diverse group of stakeholders. Finally, we continued with our restoration efforts, completing 16 stewardship and restoration projects across the plateau that focused on riparian-area protection, wildlife habitat improvement, and post-fire and drought mitigation. Water: in 2025, we became more active in the groundwater space, where, alongside coalitions and partners, we co-led a northern Arizona groundwater workshop that elevated rural and tribal voices and strengthened community-driven engagement through deeper trust and listening. We also continued our Colorado river work, seeking to move forward innovative and practical solutions to the growing crisis. While the Colorado river post-2026 guidelines public process was delayed throughout 2025, we worked to influence the guidelines for Colorado river operations. We also continue to engage in the glen canyon dam adaptive management program process to ensure dam operations protect and improve resources in the grand canyon. We started implementing a legislative strategy to push for a comprehensive study of how glen canyon dam infrastructure can be modified to benefit continued water deliveries, power generation, and grand canyon flows and resources when water levels are critically low.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 33.8%; rating input score 34
• Program expense ratio: 69.6%; rating input score 70
• Fundraising efficiency: $13.88 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 16th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
  • Compensation committee: Pass
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
  • Written employment contract: Missing
  • Compensation survey or study: Pass
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: 88.6%; rating input score 89; 27th percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Scored; rating input score 0

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
  • 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: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 59.3%; rating input score 94; 94th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 10.49; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 19.4%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 4.4% per year; rating input score 100; 35th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 10.2% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 12% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings