Wild Cat Education and Conservation Fund
Legal name: Wild Cat Education & Conservation Fund
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 680481714
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2018–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025
- Location
- Occidental, CA, US
- Phone
- (707) 874-3176
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Other Services - Specialty Animals
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $119,909
- Expenses
- $121,255
- Assets
- $130,513
- Liabilities
- $28
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
6 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- STEVE FLAHERTY (President)
People named in this filing
- BARBARA DICELY (FOUNDER/EXECDIR)
- ROBERT DICELY (FOUNDER/DIRCTOR)
- STEVE FLAHERTY (President)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The goal of the Wild Cat Education and Conservation Fund is to educate the public about the decreasing population of wild cat species around the world, provide funding for worldwide wild cat conservation projects, and offer safe refuge for captive wild cats.
What it reported doing in 2025
Worldwide wild cat conservation - wce&cf provided funding for worldwide wild cat conservation projects. In 2023 the organization helped to fund projects through the cheetah conservation fund, cheetah conservation botswana, cheetah outreach, snow leopard conservancy, small wild cat conservation foundation, and the mountain lion foundation.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 66% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 73% for direct work, and 27% for grants.
The verdict
STRONG - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Revenue has declined or grown slowly and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 80
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 44
- Growth: 40
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 80.2%; rating input score 80
- Program expense ratio: 79.3%; rating input score 79
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -1.1%; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.08; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 9.7% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -8.7% per year; rating input score 0; 5th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -2.3% per year; rating input score 0; 20th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 3 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 80.2% of revenue deployed · 79.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $96K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 6 people listed
- Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules
- Filing history: 8 filing years from 2018 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 27/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 47/100.