Where Your Money Goes
We publish a database of about 8,485 conservation organizations, built from public charity filings. So we can measure ourselves against our own sector using the same evidence we apply to everyone else — and you can check every number on this page.
Our executive director is paid nothing
Scott Trageser is listed on our Form 990 as Executive Director, 40 hours a week, $0 compensation. Every director is at $0. The salaries line is $0.
How unusual is that?
Rare, but not unique — and we would rather tell you the real number.
1,053 organizations
Conservation nonprofits that filed a full Form 990, reported revenue above $300,000, and listed a full-time chief executive in two or more years between 2016 and 2023.
42 of them — about 4%
Had a chief executive who took $0 in every year we observed. So we are one of roughly forty-two, not the only one. The others are mostly founder-led sanctuaries and rescues, and they are good company.
The smallest of the 42
Their median revenue is $727,772, more than double the threshold, and the smallest is $354,574. At $328,853, we would rank last on that list by size.
That last point is the one that matters. An unpaid director is far easier to sustain on $3 million than on $330,000. The median executive salary at organizations our size is $70,000 — which would have been 39% of our 2023 expenses and 25% of 2024’s, more than everything we granted out in 2023. A typical peer spends 15.5% of expenses on its chief executive. We spend nothing.
How we counted. Conservation organizations filing a full Form 990, revenue above $300,000, with a listed chief executive at 30 or more hours per week, in two or more observed years, 2016–2023. The two-year rule means an organization hovering near $300,000 cannot qualify, which biases the comparison group larger than us — so the true share at our own scale is probably higher than 4%. We filed a 990-EZ for 2023, which has no Part VII, so our own figures come from our filings rather than from the harvested data.
Almost all of it goes to the field
Two years, straight from our filings.
| FY2023 | FY2024 | |
|---|---|---|
| Total revenue | $189,852 | $328,853 |
| Total expenses | $179,247 | $277,558 |
| Out to program grants | 86.2% | 89.9% |
| Executive pay | $0 | $0 |
| Government funding | $0 | $0 |
Revenue grew 55% year over year, moving us from roughly the 9th to the 26th percentile by size among conservation organizations filing a full Form 990.
We manage these funds. We are not a conduit.
Most of that outflow goes to the partner organizations we fiscally sponsor. Under our sponsorship agreements we receive those donations as our own funds, decide how they are used, appoint a director to each partner’s board, and remain legally accountable for how the money is spent — including the cross-border compliance that comes with field programmes overseas.
The distinction matters. We are not forwarding money; we are managing it. What the figure shows is that we direct it outward into field programmes rather than inward into salaries and overhead.
One number we will not oversell. Zero government funding sounds striking, and for a large institution it would be. But the median organization our size takes only 1.6% of its contributions from government sources. At our scale, zero is ordinary. We list it for completeness, not as an achievement.
Questions people ask
These came from someone doing due diligence before referring projects to us. They are fair questions, so here are the answers.
“Your Form 990s are a couple of years behind.”
That gap is IRS publication, not our filing. We are current through FY2024, which was a full Form 990 rather than an EZ. FY2025 is on extension and will be filed by November 2026. We will send you the FY2024 PDF on request — just ask.
“Are your assets just funds you have not distributed yet?”
Largely yes, and deliberately. Most of what we hold is restricted funding for sponsored programmes, released in stages as the work runs rather than all at once. It is committed money in transit, not accumulated surplus.
“Is the board actually active?”
It authorizes every organization that joins the programme and reviews the tax filings. It meets formally once a year and is briefed whenever something material changes. Those two approvals are the governance that matters here: nothing enters the programme without them.
“What do you keep?”
5% of the first $100,000 of sponsored funds each year, and 3% above that — under 5% of revenue overall. That fee is what runs The Biodiversity Group. We do not apply for grants to fund our own operations, which is possible only because there is no salaried director, no office and very little else to pay for.
What it pays for
Not taking a salary is only interesting because of what the money does instead.
A film about the world’s smallest turtle
The Puerto Vallarta mud turtle (Kinosternon vogti) is the smallest turtle species known to science and the most endangered turtle in the Americas. Research by the local team — presented, though not yet fully published — also makes it the fastest-growing turtle in the world.
No film media on the species existed before ours. It publishes soon.
Discovery expeditions
Our work continues at the Rio Manduriacu Reserve in Ecuador, and a planned expedition to Santa Catalina Island, Baja California Sur, will search for the Santa Catalina Island kingsnake (Lampropeltis catalinensis). Permits pending.
The world’s first 3D wildlife scans
Our scanning programme lets species be studied and shown without being handled or collected — and puts them in front of people who will never see one in the field.
Tools other conservationists use
Connect & Conserve, the Ask Darwin research assistant, and the Species Black List — a shadow red list for species the IUCN has recorded as Data Deficient or has never assessed at all.
Every dollar goes further here
No executive salary to cover. Nearly 90% of what we spend goes straight out to the field.
Figures from our FY2023 Form 990-EZ and our filed FY2024 Form 990. Sector comparisons drawn from public Form 990 filings, 2016–2023. Last reviewed August 2026; the peer comparison will be re-run, not re-quoted, once our 2025 return is published.