The Great Basin Outdoor School
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 880396516
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2016–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2015
- Location
- Reno, NV, USA
- Phone
- 7758238888
- Rating
- 74
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Educational Services and Schools - Other
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $294,515
- Expenses
- $244,461
- Assets
- $210,434
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
6 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- SUE JACOX (PRESIDENT)
People named in this filing
- SUE JACOX (PRESIDENT)
- CALEB SJENSEN (TREASURER)
- PATTY MOEN (SECRETARY)
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
To ignite children's passion for learning and foster cooperation, respect, and responsibility through hands-on discovery in the outdoor classroom.
What it reported doing in 2024
Great basin outdoor school programs immerse students in multi-day overnight ecology camps in natural settings on nevadas shoreline of lake tahoe and day programs at other local sites. Activities meet state curriculum standards in many subjects, especially science. Students hike, snowshoe, learn ecology with hands-on activities, and do environmental projects to help keep lake tahoe blue and reduce fire danger in the tahoe basin. Activities are designed for classes of primarily fifth and sixth-grade students and their teachers and young adult volunteers. The program seeks to give the students a better understanding of our natural world and to inspire them to conserve the resources found within it, while increasing their confidence and developing more respect for themselves and each other through team-building activites. Grants and individual support keep the program affordable and provide fee reductions and scholarships for children in need. The organization provided services, such as day camps and other outdoor programs to low income populations.
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
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 69
- Transparency & Controls: 84
- Accountability: 64
- Sustainability: 61
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 68.9%; rating input score 69
- Program expense ratio: 82.2%; rating input score 82
- Fundraising efficiency: $7.22 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90%; rating input score 90; 9th 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: 1 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 14
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- 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: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 17%; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.86; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 5.7% per year; rating input score 100; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 4.4% per year; rating input score 100; 49th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 11.8% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 68.9% of revenue deployed · 82.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 1 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $201K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 6 people listed
- Consistency: 20 of 21 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 8 filing years from 2016 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 6 not reported.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 31/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 37/100.