The Land Trust for Santa Barbara County
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 953797404
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Santa Barbara, CA, USA
- Phone
- 8059664520
- Rating
- 77
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Land Resources Conservation
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $12,961,913
- Expenses
- $4,973,674
- Assets
- $29,321,358
- Liabilities
- $166,871
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
23 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Laurel Fisher Perez (President)
- Greg Parker (Vice President)
Highest reported compensation
- Meredith Hendricks (Executive Dir.): $284,305 total reported compensation
- Leslie Chan (Land Program Dir.): $125,321 total reported compensation
- Devin Rothman (Land Conservation): $114,918 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 conserve natural resources, agricultural land and open spaces for present and future generations.
What it reported doing in 2024
Education & Outreach: We engage in public education, land use, and interpretive programs in service to our mission. The Arroyo Hondo preserve hosts school and community group trips and is open to the public for free two weekends a month. We offer educational programs at Arroyo Hondo on topics such as birding, wildflowers, fire & stream ecology. We offer free community nature hikes and other guided activities at locations around the county year-round. We also offer opportunities to volunteer with the land trust in roles including preserve docent, hike guide, and restoration crew. We engage in collaborative efforts to understand community values and use a science-based landscape-scale approach to identify land conservation, stewardship, restoration, and open space access opportunities.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 83% 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 most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 52
- Transparency & Controls: 89
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 83
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 33.9%; rating input score 34
- Program expense ratio: 80.2%; rating input score 80
- Fundraising efficiency: $25.39 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 5 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 83
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Pass
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- 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; 66th 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: 61.6%; rating input score 96; 96th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 5.9; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 94; 94th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 14%; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 14.6% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 9.5% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 9.1% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 33.9% of revenue deployed · 80.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 18 of 18 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $4M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $284K · 23 people listed · 5 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $109K reported
- Consistency: 37 of 37 current checks pass
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 5 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: Mission deployment rate scored 34/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 10/100.