PLATINUM2022

Friends of the Rainforest

Educating and inspiring children and adults to take action to protect, support and expand the Rainforest.

aka Friends of the Rainforest   |   Ellisville, MO   |  www.friendsoftherainforest.org

Mission

Our mission is to inspire kids and adults to take action to protect, expand and save the Rainforest. Our focus is the Children’s Eternal Rainforest in Costa Rica, but the overarching goal is to engage kids and help contextualize the Rainforest and help connect them to it, even from Missouri. We offer free education programs for schools and community groups, provide grants to our sister organization the Monteverde Conservation League in Costa Rica, as well as organize ecotours for school and family groups to visit the Rainforest.

Ruling year info

2002

Executive Director

Sophie Arp

Main address

1324 Clarkson Clayton Center #312

Ellisville, MO 63011 USA

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Formerly known as

Monteverde Conservation League, U.S.

EIN

30-0572051

NTEE code info

Natural Resource Conservation and Protection (C30)

IRS filing requirement

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.

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Communication

Blog

Programs and results

What we aim to solve

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Our programs

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?

Education and Outreach

Friends of the Rainforest offers free Rainforest lessons, curriculum, and resources in a wide range of formats, designed to answer to the diverse needs of schools, community programs, and families. We create curricula for use by schools wishing to provide upper elementary, middle school, and high school classes with conservation education and scientific research opportunities related to rainforest and environmental conservation.

Population(s) Served

Over the years, Friends of the Rainforest has completed numerous grants to organizations devoted to protecting the Rainforest. Our grants are conservation-focused but can range from grants for land purchases to expand the Rainforest, or grants for education programming in Costa Rica, to help connect more kids to the Rainforest.

Population(s) Served

Friends of the Rainforest offers an authentic study-abroad and field research experience that incorporates tropical ecology, scientific study, international travel, and the opportunity for students to become engaged in taking action on important conservation issues.

The Costa Rica experience is designed to build upon the uniquely adolescent ability to construct their own worldview and to maximize their exposure to meaningful scientific research. This practice requires moving outside the comfort of their home community and is designed to be a peak learning experience for adolescents and engage students in meaningful scientific study.

Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Adults
Children and youth
Adults

Where we work

Affiliations & memberships

One Tree Planted 2022

#NatureforAll 2021

Conservation Optimism 2021

Cleaner Gold Network 2022

Videos

Our results

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.

Number of students enrolled

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Students, Children and youth, Adults

Related Program

Education and Outreach

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

The number of students reached each year through our Rainforest lesssons.

Total dollars received in contributions

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Type of Metric

Input - describing resources we use

Direction of Success

Increasing

Number of paid participants on field trips

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Students, Children and youth, Adults

Related Program

EcoTours

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

We did not host any EcoTours between March 2020 and February 2022.

Our Sustainable Development Goals

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.

Goals & Strategy

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.

Charting impact

Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

To expand our reach, engage more kids and adults across the world, and connect them to our Rainforest resources and EcoTours.

To adapt and grow our programming through an equity and anti-racist lens. To create greater accessibility in our programs and resources.

To implement a scholarship program to help alleviate the costs of experiencing the Rainforest. To make our EcoTour programs (and other conservation programs) accessible regardless of cost or class.

We are working to build meaningful partnerships and collaborations with other local and international organizations to learn and grow our own programming, as well as reach new audiences.

We are constantly researching ways to make our programming more equitable. We are part of the 2022 Out-of-School-Time STEM Programs Community of Practice, hosted by STEMSTL, a program to explore the intersection of quality and anti-racism with the goal of improving STEM programming for youth in the St. Louis region.

We are just now building the foundation for what will become our scholarship program. We have the funding available, just need to finalize the programming and run a test run.

We are a very small organization. While these goals are certainly stretch goals, it's well within our capabilities to successfully achieve our goals.

We are currently rebuilding the International Children's Eternal Rainforest Network, as well as connecting with more organizations (See our partnership page: www.friendsoftherainforest.org/partners).

Additionally, we created our take-home boxed lessons in an effort to make Rainforest lessons more accessible and equitable, reaching those in our community who don't have reliable internet or access to a computer.

How we listen

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.

done We demonstrated a willingness to learn more by reviewing resources about feedback practice.
done We shared information about our current feedback practices.

  • Who are the people you serve with your mission?

    We serve local schools, homeschool groups, and other community members with our education programming. Our EcoTours program serves schools and families all over the world.

  • How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?

    Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.),

  • How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?

    To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals,

  • What significant change resulted from feedback?

    We have been adding photo descriptions to our website in order to better accommodate blind users.

  • With whom is the organization sharing feedback?

    Our staff, Our board,

  • How has asking for feedback from the people you serve changed your relationship?

    The choices we make regarding our programming feel more collaborative. By taking feedback from our community, we have strengthened our relationship with them and feel more confident in changes we make.

  • Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?

    We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback,

  • What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

    It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time, It is difficult to identify actionable feedback,

Financials

Friends of the Rainforest
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Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

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Connect with nonprofit leaders

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lock

Connect with nonprofit leaders

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Build relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.

  • Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
  • Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
  • Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations

Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.

Friends of the Rainforest

Board of directors
as of 02/28/2022
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
Board chair

Maggie Eisenberger

Retired

Term: 2014 - 2024

Margaret Eisenberger

James Crain

David Robnak

Melissa Hoener

Chad Hoener

Sarah Craig

Board leadership practices

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.

  • Board orientation and education
    Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes
  • CEO oversight
    Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? No
  • Ethics and transparency
    Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? No
  • Board composition
    Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Not applicable
  • Board performance
    Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No

Organizational demographics

SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 2/28/2022
info Candid has made improvements to the race and ethnicity options.

Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.

Leadership

The organization's leader identifies as:

Race & ethnicity
White/Caucasian/European
Gender identity
Female, Not transgender (cisgender)
Sexual orientation
Gay, lesbian, bisexual, or other sexual orientations in the LGBTQIA+ community
Disability status
Person without a disability

Race & ethnicity

Gender identity

 

Sexual orientation

Disability

No data

Equity strategies

Last updated: 02/28/2022

GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more

Data
  • We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
  • We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
  • We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
Policies and processes
  • We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
  • We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
  • We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
  • We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.