The Sustainability Laboratory Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 263700268
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- New York, NY, USA
- Phone
- 2127679936
- Rating
- 82
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Research Institutes and/or Public Policy Analysis
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $546,715
- Expenses
- $533,403
- Assets
- $323,072
- Liabilities
- $74,969
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Michael Ben Eli (President)
People named in this filing
- Michael Gukovsky (Director)
- Tom McMackin (Treasurer)
- Peter Dean (Director)
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 act as a catalyst for accelerating the transition of worlds society and its economy to a sustainable basis by researching, developing, demonstrating and facilitating adoption of breakthrough sustainability practices, thereby expanding prospects, and producing positive, life-affirming impacts on people and ecosystems in all parts of the world.
What it reported doing in 2024
GSF (Global Sustainability Fellows) inspires, informs, and mobilizes future generations of leaders and integrates a rigorous theorectical orientation with experience-based learning, international exposure, and cross-discipline work. The program imparts the core competencies required to effectively tackle urgent sustainability challenges on a local, regional, and planetary scale.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Program spending has declined or grown slowly and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 87
- Transparency & Controls: 84
- Accountability: 88
- Sustainability: 41
- Growth: 40
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 89.5%; rating input score 90
- Program expense ratio: 91.8%; rating input score 92
- Fundraising efficiency: $18 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 5 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 71
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Fail
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 2.4%; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.61; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.23; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -1.6% per year; rating input score 0; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 1.1% per year; rating input score 100; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -5.1% per year; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 89.5% of revenue deployed · 91.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 5 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $489K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
- Consistency: 19 of 20 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 13 filing years from 2011 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- 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 — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 56/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Board meeting minutes documented not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 43/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 28/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 29/100.