Yuba Watershed Institute
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 680235031
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2019, Form 990-N 2017
- Location
- Nevada City, CA, USA
- Phone
- 5309551822
- Rating
- 87
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Education N.E.C.
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,525,015
- Expenses
- $1,473,008
- Assets
- $795,897
- Liabilities
- $723,555
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Christopher Friedel (Executive Director)
- Daniel Nicholson (President)
- Amber Cone (Vice President)
Highest reported compensation
- Christopher Friedel (Executive Director): $72,123 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To promote the sustainable use of natural resources and the protection of long-term biological diversity in the Yuba River watershed.
What it reported doing in 2025
Program: Forest Health. Planned and implemented forest health and hazardous fuels reduction projects across the Yuba River watershed, working with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Nevada County, the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, and private landowners. In 2025 the Institute completed the 'Inimim Forest Restoration Project Phase 3 timber harvest and biomass treatment on roughly 250 acres of BLM land co-managed with YWI (SNC grant 1507), continued mastication and hand thinning on the 195-acre Little Deer Creek Landscape Resilience Project (SNC grant 1637), carried out hazardous fuels reduction, CEQA compliance and monitoring for the South Yuba Rim project under contract with Nevada County (funded by FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program and SNC), and began planning for a shaded fuel break at Round Mountain. Work is performed by licensed contractors under YWI project management, with a Registered Professional Forester and environmental consultants. Expenses shown are the Forest Health program per the audited Statement of Functional Expenses; revenue is the grant and contract revenue earned for this program (SNC administrative-cost reimbursements of 81,542 are excluded).
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 99% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- 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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 93
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 79
- Sustainability: 33
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 91.9%; rating input score 92
- Program expense ratio: 95.2%; rating input score 95
- Fundraising efficiency: $296.46 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 93; 93rd 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 3.4%; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.54; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.91; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 4.9%; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 32.3% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 30.5% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 34.1% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 91.9% of revenue deployed · 95.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $1.4M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $72K · 8 people listed
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $1M reported
- Consistency: 43 of 43 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 5 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 8 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 40/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 26/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 5/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 50/100.