United States Endowment for Forestry

What it reported doing in 2024

The Endowment advances its mission using a "theory of change" that focuses on three areas: retaining and restoring healthy working forests; promoting and capturing multiple value streams using market-based tools; and enhancing community capacity, collaboration, and leadership. The Endowment deploys its work through five primary initiatives, each of which supports several programs or projects. I. Ecosystem Markets: Monetizing non-traditional forest products. The Endowment continues a focus on water as an ecosystem market. The Endowment is partially funding coordinators across the country who work with local partners to seek State Revolving Fund loans for forested watershed protection and management, which will help keep drinking water supplies clean and affordable. The Endowment is also exploring opportunities for biodiversity credits for landowners as another source of revenue that will contribute to conservation goals. II. Forest Retention and Health: Retaining/expanding and ensuring health of forests. This is a wide-ranging initiative that includes serving as cross-border convener for more strategic collaboration between Canada and the U.S. Other work includes corporate partnerships to protect bottomland hardwood forests, the Department of Defense's base buffering program and innovative financing approaches for forest management and retention. Each is designed to aid in retention and restoration of healthy working forests. A corporate partnership provides funding for conservation of high-value bottomland hardwood forests in North Carolina and Virginia; this program is a model for public-private partnerships. The Endowment works with local conservation partners to take advantage of USDA funds through the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Their Regional Conservation Partnership Program awards finance conservation easements that protect forests that are important for the environment and that sustain local jobs and economies. III. Traditional Markets: After successful work that led to the creation of two commodity check-offs - Softwood Lumber Board and Paper & Paper-based Packaging Board -- more recent work has included supporting initiatives to advance public understanding of the benefits of working forests and the role they play in climate solutions. We are also continuing to develop blockchain solutions through a program called ForesTrust, which seeks to track the supply chain of timber and forest products from forests to end-product, which helps alleviate issues involving illegal logging. IV. Future Markets: The Endowment is partnering with the USDA Forest Service and emerging producers to advance commercialization of cellulosic nanomaterials. This multi-year initiative engages partners to fill knowledge gaps facilitating new products and applications while placing a primary interest on ensuring human and environmental health and safety. Work continues to advance mass timber applications to support tall wooden buildings, including advancing the carbon story of forest products. The Endowment is investigating potential benefits and concerns associated with forest carbon. In response to an increase in public and private investment in carbon management and climate smart forestry on private forest lands, the Endowment is funding programs and workshops to better understand and quantify landowner capacity and willingness to adopt carbon management practices and the implications for other forest land uses (e.g., wood products). Through the US Biochar Initiative project, we work with partners to increase applications, market, and production of biochar with the ultimate goal of carbon being buried in the ground, allowing carbon credits to be realized. The Forest & Wood Carbon Data Platform launch in 2023 created a single U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-sponsored platform with multiple user-friendly tools providing transparent, high-integrity forest and wood product carbon data throughout the value chain. The platform will

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
• Program expense ratio: 94.1%; rating input score 94
• Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 14th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 5 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 83
  • Compensation committee: Missing
  • Independent consultant: Pass
  • 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: 44%; rating input score 44; 10th percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 26th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • 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: -190.6%; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 9.89; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 9.1%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 13.7% per year; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 8.9% per year; rating input score 100; 70th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 3.7% per year; rating input score 100; 27th percentile among comparable filings