Ventana Wilderness Alliance
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 770532467
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Monterey, CA, USA
- Phone
- 8314233191
- Rating
- 75
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Environmental Beautification and Aesthetics
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $743,171
- Expenses
- $747,733
- Assets
- $128,580
- Liabilities
- $10,117
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- MIKE CHAMBERLAIN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
- Tom Hopkins (Vice President)
- David Jacobs (President)
Highest reported compensation
- MIKE CHAMBERLAIN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $117,011 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 mission of the Ventana Wilderness Alliance is to protect, preserve, and restore the wilderness qualities and biodiversity of the public lands within California's northern Santa Lucia Mountains and Big Sur coast.
What it reported doing in 2024
Advocacy: vwa advocates for wilderness values and the ecologically sensitive management of public lands in the ventana and big sur regions. Policy experts analyze and respond to the us forest service schedule of proposed actions (sopa) by attending planning and scoping meetings, providing comments, and encouraging participation by the public and other stakeholders. The vwa's advocacy programs included efforts to expand wilderness and wild and scenic river designations, monitoring grazing allotments to ensure regulatory compliance, promoting approprate fuels and wildfire management strategies, identifying and encouraging the mitigation of wilderness incursions, educating the public about wilderness, and advocating for the restoration of federal funding to critical public land agencies.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 96% 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 a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 61
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 26
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 65.5%; rating input score 66
- Program expense ratio: 65.1%; rating input score 65
- Fundraising efficiency: $5.56 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 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: -0.6%; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.17; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.08; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 15.6%; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 7.2% per year; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 7.5% per year; rating input score 100; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -1% per year; rating input score 0; 14th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 65.5% of revenue deployed · 65.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $486K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $117K · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 22 of 22 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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.
- 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.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 20/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 34/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 8/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 22/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 46/100.