West Creek Conservancy

What it reported doing in 2024

West creek conservancy's role in the community and region is unique, as it takes a collaborative watershed approach to land conservation, stream/wetland restoration, and trail/greenway development. Northeast Ohio has a storied history of development and has often been a poster child for environmental progress. Where a river's fires and pollution were once national front-page news, we now have one of the most visited national parks in the country, a vast network of metroparks and park districts, a 100-mile water trail, a handful of nationally significant 'scenic rivers', a regionally collaborative network of watershed groups, activation and public improvements along many riverine and coastal areas, and story after story of habitat and wildlife recovery. Even with such progress, we still have much left to do west creek is a hybrid land conservation and watershed-restoration organization that focuses on myriad activities: acquiring land (including high quality and completely degraded areas); restoring ecological functionality (encompassing streams, wetlands, open meadows, forest lands, as well as brownfields); retrofitting the built environment (often removing unsustainable development, reclaiming natural areas, and installing green infrastructure or other stormwater control mechanisms); building trail/greenway networks in order to connect people to these special places; and engaging municipalities, stakeholders, policy makers, and other partners to implement sustainable practice and policy. This is what we refer to as a "headwaters-to-confluence approach." west creek regularly fills a niche: helping partners acquire land, possibly on an interim basis, and sometimes pre-acquiring before the opportunity is lost. We pride ourselves on our partnerships and our collaborative approach. One of the largest and most recent examples is a project referred to as irishtown bend - a more than 23 acre reclamation initiative in the heart of downtown cleveland along a half mile of the cuyahoga river, which made significant strides in 2024. West creek orchestrated a series of complex transactions to gain ownership of the area so that its partners could accelerate and implement a truly transformative and critical project. Our role helped catalyze a nearly 100m project that will change the face of the river and provide much-needed urban park, greenspace, and outdoor recreation opportunities to a dense urban community. With a small staff, our watershed and conservation services stretch beyond a dozen counties in northeast Ohio. Employing our partnership approach, we are assisting richland county park district, to create and restore a 100- acre area within clear fork river, including to provide access to nearly three miles of the river; assisting summit metro parks to expand conservation along the cuyahoga river, adding another 57 acres & 1-mile of river under their stewardship, as well as facilitating a 20-acre addition to their nationally acclaimed valley view bluffs park; assisting cleveland metroparks with expanding bedford and brecksville reservations, while developing over 2 miles of the west creek greenway to provide access and connectivity to the over 40,000 people living within a 1-mile radius ; assisting cuyahoga valley national park with in-hold property conservation; assisting the Ohio department of natural resources (odnr) with a nearly 200-acre expansion of the funk bottoms wildlife area, as well as expansion of dupont state nature preserve and tinker's creek state preserve; driving an initiative to preserve critical areas around talcott creek, a cold-water stream of the grand river watershed; protecting a 108-acre crucial source of drinking water in the headwaters of the cuyahoga river; further expanding the conservation corridor in furnace run/baldwin creek - a second phase now totaling over 100-acres that straddles brecksville and broadview heights; adding 12 acres to the highland heights city park, where we have already protected ov

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 86.4%; rating input score 86
• Program expense ratio: 94.6%; rating input score 95
• Fundraising efficiency: $103.07 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 85; 85th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 14th 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; 66th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 8.7%; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.62; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.17; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 1.9%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 11.4% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 13.9% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 17.7% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings