Virginia Society of Ornithology
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 541081406
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2021–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2020
- Location
- Williamsburg, VA, USA
- Phone
- 7039697931
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $137,798
- Expenses
- $240,686
- Assets
- $684,254
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
16 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Diane Lepkowski (President)
- Daniel Albrecht-Malinger (Vice President)
People named in this filing
- Diane Lepkowski (President)
- Daniel Albrecht-Malinger (Vice President)
- Dixie Sommers (Treasurer)
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 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To encourage the systematic study of birds in Virginia, to stimulate interest in birds, and to assist the conservation of wildlife and other natural resources
What it reported doing in 2025
Systematic study of birds. The organization produces scientific publications to educate the public and keep members informed about developments in ornithology, including newsletters, The Raven journal, Virginia Birds publication, and website. The organization also worked with partners to publish the 2nd Virginia Breeding Bird Atlas (www.vabirdatlas.org), and raised funds to pay for the publication. The organization includes the Virginia Avian Records Committee with a mission to increase knowledge of Virginias birds, to evaluate and archive records of vagrants and rare nesting species in the state, and to encourage high standards of observation, recording and reporting in the birding community. The VSO provides awards and scholarships to ornithology students, fostering current and future science. The VSO maintains a MOTUS tower at its Bramble Hill property for tracking tagged birds.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 66% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 86% 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 - 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 some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 96
- Transparency & Controls: 64
- Accountability: 76
- Sustainability: 38
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 95.7%; rating input score 96
- Fundraising efficiency: $51.28 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: 0 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Claims monitoring procedures: Limited
- Requires narrative reports: Limited
- Conducts field audits: Limited
- May suspend future funding: Limited
- Requires financial reports: Limited
- Conducts site visits: Limited
- Requires grant agreements: Limited
- May require repayment: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 62.9%; rating input score 63; 47th 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 3 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 43
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- 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: -74.7%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.84; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 51.6% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -28.3% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 3.3% per year; rating input score 100; 36th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 95.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 14 of 14 board members independent · 3 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $230K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 16 people listed
- Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $124K reported
- Consistency: 25 of 26 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, and grants
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2021 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 6 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 2/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.