The Pollination Project Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
460675457
IRS 990 coverage
2015–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Martinez, CA, USA
Phone
8282029569
Rating
74
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Fund Raising and Fund Distribution

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,364,413
Expenses
$1,332,937
Assets
$1,072,963
Liabilities
$118,647

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

Leadership & pay

4 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • ARIEL NESSEL (PRESIDENT)
  • STEPHANIE KLEMPNER (VICE PRESIDENT & SECRETARY)
  • ALEXIS FOX (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • ALEXIS FOX (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $103,846 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

The pollination project foundation (tpp) provides catalytic seed funding to expert volunteers driving grassroots, community-led change around the world. Grounded in heartivism - the practice of pairing compassion with action - tpp funds leaders in more than 120 countries working across education, climate and environmental protection, women and girls' empowerment, disaster response, and animal protection. Our core thesis is simple and proven: expert volunteers plus modest capital equals outsized, durable impact. Tpp exists to ensure that people closest to the challenges they seek to solve are trusted, resourced, and supported to lead.

What it reported doing in 2024

Grantmaking: the pollination project's core daily grant program provides catalytic seed grants to expert volunteer-led, community-driven initiatives around the world - grounded in heartivism, the practice of pairing compassion with action. Tpp exists on the conviction that the people closest to a problem are best positioned to solve it, and that trust, empathy, and lived experience belong at the center of how change happens. During fiscal year 2024-2025, tpp awarded 366 grants totaling over $507,000 across six continents and 55 countries, including significant foreign grants. Grants ranging from $500 to $10,000 fund initiatives across four impact areas: planetary & human health, animal protection, equity & dignity, and community development & education. Funding decisions are guided by a globally distributed network of 80+ volunteer grant advisors - many of them former grantees themselves - who bring local knowledge, sector expertise, and the wisdom of lived experience to every decision. A typical grant mobilizes 200 hours of volunteer time, with one in four grantees contributing 500 or more volunteer hours. In total, grantees and their communities contributed nearly 80,000 volunteer hours this year - equivalent to over nine years of continuous service. The leverage is remarkable: one in three grantees attracted additional funding within months of their pollination project grant, one in three received media coverage, and one in twelve received formal awards. Tpp received 3,800 applications this year - a 65% increase in qualified applicants - and was able to fund fewer than 10%, reflecting surging global demand for this heartivism-grounded model of catalytic change.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 99% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 46% for direct work, and 54% for grants.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 74
  • Transparency & Controls: 75
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 41
  • Growth: 40

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 77.9%; rating input score 78
  • Program expense ratio: 79.5%; rating input score 80
  • Fundraising efficiency: $9.8 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 16th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
    • Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
    • Requires narrative reports: Fail
    • Conducts field audits: Fail
    • May suspend future funding: Fail
    • Requires financial reports: Pass
    • Conducts site visits: Pass
    • Requires grant agreements: Fail
    • May require repayment: Fail
  • Grant itemization coverage: 80.9%; rating input score 81; 35th percentile among comparable filings
  • 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: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 2.3%; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.8; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.11; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 7.8%; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 0.3% per year; rating input score 100; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -2.5% per year; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -11.7% per year; rating input score 0; 3rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 77.9% of revenue deployed · 79.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 3 of 3 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $1.1M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $104K · 4 people listed
  • Consistency: 29 of 31 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, and grants
  • Filing history: 10 filing years from 2015 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 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.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight: 5 of 8 not reported.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 37/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 43/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 36/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Foreign grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 41/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 44/100.