Watershed Solutions Network

What it reported doing in 2024

WSN cultivates bold leaders, strengthens trust across divides, and demonstrates how collaboration at the watershed scale drives climate resilience. In July 2025, Watershed Solutions Network (WSN) completed its first year as an independent 501(c)(3). WSN is more than 150 Network Members strong and has hundreds of partners, all committed to equitable and sustainable land and water stewardship. Our members include leaders from Tribes, agriculture, NGOs, local, federal, and state governments across the land and the water sectors. In the past fiscal year, WSN built collaborative capacity by developing a Natural Resource Training that demonstrates how to center equity, deepens cross-sector understanding, and builds trust. We offered the training twice this fiscal year. We started with a small training to test the curriculum in August 2024. Then we offered a full-scale training, the Kowana Valley Training (May 2025), where 40 participants gathered to learn from Tribal leaders and the private landowner whose property we gathered on. To promote understanding of the power of watershed-wide coordinated action, WSN also organized a Klamath River Watershed Trip (September 2024) following the historic removal of four dams. Participants traced the salmons journey from ocean to headwaters by canoe, kayak, and field visits guided by Tribal, agricultural, and NGO leaders. The experience illustrated how the seemingly impossible can be achieved through innovative and collaborative action. During the trip, relationships among participants were enhanced and they developed an understanding of the complex political and ecological landscape across the Klamath watershed. Additional Network events included a systems thinking workshop, a Sandhill Crane migration observation, a Southern California beach cleanup, and monthly virtual conveningsoffering members opportunities to learn and engage. WSN started as a program of another organization. During that phase of our evolution, with the help of land and water experts around California, WSN developed a Watershed Framework that suggests how to connect people across a watershed and spur coordinated action. This fiscal year, WSN deployed the Watershed Framework to build relationships across the Feather River Watershed, which is engineered to connect all the way to Southern California. In June 2025, WSN partnered with the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) of Southern California, Blue Forest, and local Upper Feather River leaders to bring leaders from both sub-regions together. The visit introduced Southern California leaders to Upper Feather River leaders, built trust, and identified common interests across the watershed. Participants visited and learned about Upper Feather River efforts to manage forests, water, and ecosystems. The gathering led Southern California leadership to invite Upper Feather partners to Southern California in 2026 to continue relationship building and learning. These early steps advanced common understanding of watershed interdependencies and opened pathways for coordinated, cross-regional collaboration. Forest Gatherings offer immersive experiences where Tribal, state, federal, and local leaders spend several days together meeting each other as humans and getting to know the place where we are camped together. WSN demonstrates how we believe you center equity by starting with the Tribe whose place we are gathering in and asking if they are willing to host the group. The Gathering opens with the host Tribe welcoming the group and sharing what they wish the group to know about the Tribe and the place. There are no VIPs at Forest Gatherings. Everyone shares meals, clean-up, sleeps in a tent, and the group shares a restoration project that helps them connect to the place and develop a deeper understanding of how place matters. Gatherings equalize influence, highlight the impact of local collaborations, and demonstrate the power of centering Tribal leadership. In April 2025, the Kumeyaay N

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
• Program expense ratio: 65.6%; rating input score 66
• Fundraising efficiency: $8 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 31; 31st 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: -52.3%; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.81; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 13.3%; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 196.1% per year; rating input score 100; 100th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: -54.4% per year; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: -33.6% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings