Washington Native Plant Society
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 910972555
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Seattle, WA, USA
- Phone
- 2065273210
- Rating
- 83
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Natural Resources Conservation and Protection
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $603,232
- Expenses
- $635,926
- Assets
- $1,044,171
- Liabilities
- $95,525
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
27 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Gail Sklar (President)
- Caisey Leigh (Vice President)
- Keyna Bugner (Past President)
Highest reported compensation
- Denise Mahnke (Executive Dir.): $81,138 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To promote the appreciation and conservation of Washington's native plants and their habitats through study, education, and advocacy.
What it reported doing in 2024
Native Plant Public Education and Publications: WNPS provides a broad array of educational services to the public through its 12 chapters and 2,750 members statewide. Our online training offers a wide variety of subjects such as native pollinators, virtual plant walks, forest fire ecology, climate change, botanical drawing and many more. Study Weekend is a member event that focuses on botanical field trips, speakers, dinners and more. Each event is sponsored by a different chapter(s), allowing this event to be held in diversified areas throughout the state. Another popular event is Botany Washington, co-sponsored with the University of Washington Herbarium at the Burke Museum (WTU). Botany Washington provides botanists, ecologists, and other professionals with access to experts and an in-depth study of selected taxonomic groups.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 70% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 91% 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
STRONG - 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: 76
- Transparency & Controls: 94
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 37
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 86%; rating input score 86
- Program expense ratio: 71.9%; rating input score 72
- Fundraising efficiency: $9.58 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 36; 36th 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 76th 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; 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: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -5.4%; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.64; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.09; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 12.8%; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 7.4% per year; rating input score 100; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 7% per year; rating input score 100; 54th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 10.7% per year; rating input score 100; 61st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 86% of revenue deployed · 71.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 26 of 26 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 6 filed program accomplishments · $457K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $81K · 27 people listed
- Consistency: 30 of 30 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 13 filing years from 2011 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.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 36/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 23/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 59/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 28/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 44/100.