Volcan Mountain Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
330329894
IRS 990 coverage
2012–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Julian, CA, USA
Phone
7607652300
Rating
79
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,131,143
Expenses
$840,208
Assets
$8,397,169
Liabilities
$18,856

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

17 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Eric Jones (President)
  • Jay Evarts (Vice President)
  • David Rubenson (Vice President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Eric Jones (President): $84,889 total reported compensation
  • Susan Meyer (Director): $62,325 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The Volcan Mountain Foundation's mission is to preserve Volcan Mountain Range in its natural state for all generations.

What it reported doing in 2025

Stewardship: Habitat Conservation, Monitoring & Natural Resource Management Although the Volcan Mountain Foundation only first became a land owner and manager in 2009, VMF has been partnering with San Diego County Parks & Recreation rangers and staff for over two decades on botanical and rare plant field surveys, habitat restoration projects, and building and maintaining trails. That experience is now brought to bear on the nearly 1,100 acres that VMF owns and manages on Volcan Mountain. VMF staff and volunteers have worked to restore forest health through coordinated conifer replanting efforts after devastating wildfires. We work to ensure ongoing oak forest and headwaters health in the face of invasive pests, like the gold-spotted oak borer, with a multigenerational oak replanting project, and through removal of invasive species, like bull thistle and the Chinese tree of heaven. VMF's volunteer Wildlife Imaging Team monitors and tracks wildlife presence on VMF and adjacent properties in partnership with Volcan Mountain neighbors, regional wildlife biologists, San Diego Natural History Museum and others. In 2023, VMF embarked on a three-year Volcan Mountain Nature Center Montane Forest Resilience Project, largely funded by a Wildlife Conservation Board $1.55m grant.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
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 - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 65
  • Transparency & Controls: 83
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 74
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 60.9%; rating input score 61
  • Program expense ratio: 79.9%; rating input score 80
  • Fundraising efficiency: $11.56 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 87.5%; rating input score 88; 3rd 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
    • 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: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 25.7%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 9.99; rating input score 92; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 17.5%; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 25.6% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 20.4% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 9.6% per year; rating input score 100; 54th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 60.9% of revenue deployed · 79.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 16 of 16 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $671K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $85K · 17 people listed
  • Consistency: 44 of 46 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 13 filing years from 2012 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
  • 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 40/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Schedule G fundraiser detail did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 20/100.