EARTH SANGHA INC

Conservation in Practice.

Annandale, VA   |  www.earthsangha.org

Mission

Our mission is to help people develop healthier connections to the lands and waters around them. We work in two regions. In the Washington DC area, we work to conserve and restore native forests and meadows on public lands. On the island of Hispaniola, along the Dominican Republic / Haiti border, we work with small-holder farmers to conserve native forest in ways that boost farm incomes. More info at earthsangha.org.

Ruling year info

1998

President

Mr. Chris Bright

Executive Director

Mrs. Lisa Bright

Main address

5101 I Backlick Road

Annandale, VA 22003 USA

Show more contact info

EIN

54-1868546

NTEE code info

Forest Conservation (C36)

Water Resource, Wetlands Conservation and Management (C32)

Rural (S32)

IRS filing requirement

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

Sign in or create an account to view Form(s) 990 for 2020, 2019 and 2018.
Register now

Communication

Programs and results

What we aim to solve

This profile needs more info.

If it is your nonprofit, add a problem overview.

Login and update

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?

DC Area Ecological Restoration

Wild Plant Nursery: We operate an ecological-restoration nursery for the greater Washington area. We grow over 250 species of native plants, all from seed that we ourselves collect from local, wild native-plant populations (local ecotypes). The use of local ecotypes is a standard best practice in ecological restoration and our nursery is the only facility in our region dedicated exclusively to this type of propagation. Our nursery is also apparently the sole local source for some of the species that we grow. Our nursery stock is used in our own restoration work, and in that of other nonprofits and local government agencies. 

Stream-Buffer and Alluvial Forest Restoration: We collaborate with several agencies in northern Virginia to restore native plant communities along streams and in degraded floodplains. These efforts improve local wildlife habitat, and help local jurisdictions make their commitments to the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay.

Native Arboretum: We are transforming the Marie Butler Leven Preserve, a 20-acre park in Fairfax County, Virginia, into an extensive display collection of native plants. Nearly an acre has become an invasives-free, restored habitat and propagation beds have been installed to speed up revegetation in extended restoration areas. 

Green Literacy: We are supplying various local schools with plants and are willing to serve as consultants to project managers on schoolyard planting projects. Most of the elementary school plantings are linked to environmental science courses developed by our partner nonprofit, Lands and Waters.

Population(s) Served
Adults

Earth Sangha's Tree Bank Hispaniola is a partnership with a group of small-holder farmers who live along a section of the Dominican Republic – Haiti border. We work with Tree Bank farmers to improve their incomes and to conserve and restore the region’s native forest.

The project is based in the mountain community of Los Cerezos, on the Dominican side of the border. The remaining forests of Hispaniola’s rugged interior, virtually all of which lie on the Dominican side of the border, are among the most important surviving remnants of the Caribbean global biodiversity hotspot. (A hotspot is a region of very high biological diversity that is also under a very high level of threat.)

Currently, the Tree Bank includes:

A community tree nursery,
A set of native-forest plantings,
Our Rising Forests coffee program,
Our Forest Credit system, which links low-cost farm credit to conservation easements, and
An agro-ecological planting system designed to reduce slash and burn farming,
A water security program for the local school,
A 45 acre nature reserve.

Population(s) Served
Economically disadvantaged people

The Native Arboretum project is located at the Marie Butler Leven Preserve, in the McLean section of Fairfax County. The project began in 2004, and is based on an agreement between the Fairfax County Park Authority, which owns the Preserve, and the Earth Sangha. The aim of the project is to transform the Preserve into an extensive collection of plants native to the greater Washington, DC, region. The collection will not include all species native to the DC Metropolitan area, but it will represent the full spectrum of the region’s flora—trees, shrubs, vines, and herbaceous plants.



Our objective is to create a living botanical library. The Native Arboretum will be a public resource for building ecological literacy, and for creating a stronger mandate for conservation.



When our project started, the Preserve was well on its way from being a small but diverse native forest to becoming a large invasive thicket. Since then we have made substantial progress, but the Preserve remains heavily infested by invasive alien plants; we have had to fight the invasives for just about every square foot of area restored.

Population(s) Served
Adults

Where we work

Awards

One of the best small charities in the Washington, DC, region. 2005

Catalogue for Philanthropy Greater Washington, DC Metropolitan Area

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.

Our mission is ecological restoration and native flora preservation, in the Washington, DC region and the Dominican Republic-Haiti border region, as a form of socially engaged Buddhism. Our aim is to restore the native plant communities that are essential to the greater ecological health of these two regions by working with the major landholders. In the DC area this means working with land management agencies and in the Dominican Republic it means working with smallholder farmers.

For our DC area work our objectives for the 3 to 5 years are to: 1) expand and upgrade facilities at our Wild Plant Nursery. 2) To expand plant propagation efforts in cooperation with the National Park Service and Fairfax County Park Authority. 3) And to collect relevant GPS data for all our species in propagation. This data is essential in guiding our seed collection and ecological monitoring efforts.

The main objectives for our work for the next 3 to 5 years in the Dominican Republic (also known as the Tree Bank Hispaniola) are to increase the number of acres in conservation and restoration and further our ability to act as a conservation resource. We will achieve these by 1) expanding our Tree Bank Community Nursery to increase our propagation capacity (all the trees grown are available to member farmers for free). 2) To start supplying other regional organizations with trees for their own restoration efforts. 3) And to improve our data collection methods.

Across all our programs, our goal is to act as a conservation resource and to further ecological restoration through our own work and by supporting the work of our partners. To best realize this goal, we approach the problems of environmental degradation from many angles: by directly restoring damaged areas, propagating restoration-quality native plant species to drive restoration throughout the region, educating people of all ages about natural resources and how to protect them, and addressing agricultural practices and poverty that drive deforestation in the rural Dominican Republic.

In the Washington, DC area we operate a volunteer based restoration program that works to stabilize streams, remove invasive alien plants, and restore forests, meadows, and wetlands. Annually, our DC area restoration work attracts over 600 volunteers. The heart of the program is our Wild Plant Nursery, the region’s most comprehensive source of native plants propagated from wild seed. Such “local ecotype” stock is generally regarded as a prerequisite for careful restoration. Our nursery provides restoration quality stock to our own restoration efforts and to those of land management agencies, conservation nonprofits, local schools, and businesses. As the Wild Plant Nursery grows, we become better equipped to support more restoration and conservation efforts, in addition to our own volunteer-based work. For these reasons, this program acts as a “force multiplier” for restoration and conservation efforts in the DC region. As we are able to propagate more plants, monitor more sites, and collect more seed, we are able to help more jurisdictions, agencies, and nonprofits make their environmental efforts more effective.

Our Dominican Republic project, also known as the Tree Bank Hispaniola, works with smallholder farmers to promote sustainable agriculture and alleviate poverty as a means of forest conservation and restoration. To achieve its goals, the Tree Bank offers the following services to its member farms: credit for forest easements, free trees for restoration and orchard development, premium shade-coffee purchasing, and a small soil improvement program. By fighting poverty and supporting sustainable agriculture, we are creating new infrastructure that protects forest instead of exploiting it.

Founded in 1997, the Earth Sangha has over 15 years of experience in conservation, and restoration and over a decade of experience in propagating flora native to the Washington, DC area. Our Wild Plant Nursery is the gold standard for local-ecotype native plant propagation in the DC area. We have positioned ourselves to act as a conservation resource for land management agencies, businesses, schools, and other nonprofits. By supplying other organization’s conservation efforts with either our expertise and local ecotype native plants we are multiplying our ability to conserve and restore land in the DC area. By engaging the local community in our conservation efforts we have built a large network of volunteers. Annually we work with over 600 volunteers through invasive removals, native species plantings, seed cleanings, and at our Wild Plant Nursery. Our main partner is the Fairfax County Park Authority, but we have long term contracts with the Bureau of Land Management and the Fish and Wildlife Service. We have occasional partnerships with other jurisdictions and conservation groups, including Arlington County, the City of Alexandria, Lands and Waters, the Potomac Conservancy, the Anacostia Watershed Society, and the National Park Service.

The Earth Sangha has over 8 years of experience working with smallholder farmers to conserve and restore threatened tropical forest. The Tree Bank Hispaniola is a partnership between the Earth Sangha and the Asociación de Productores de Bosque Los Cerezos, a farmers’ co-op in the mountains of the Dajabon province in the Dominican Republic, not far from the Haitian border. Our Dominican staff is comprised of a team of local farmers who are also active members of the Asociación de Productores de Bosque Los Cerezos. We develop all our Tree Bank programs in close collaboration with our partner organization to ensure that the needs of the farmers are met and the forest is restored correctly.

Since the Wild Plant Nursery’s inception in 2001 (we started distributing plants in 2003 -- most plants must be grown out before they are saleable, hence the 2 year delay), we have distributed roughly 75,000 plants across the DC region (This number is current up to the end of 2014). Production and distribution have grown tremendously in recent years; more than half of our total plant distribution has taken place in the last 3 years. We have worked on about 30 stream buffer plantings over the years, nearly all of them on public lands in Northern Virginia. These plantings cover more than 18 acres, along more than 2 miles of stream bank. Since 2004, we have been working in several forested parks to remove invasive alien plants and restore native flora. Our most important non-buffer forest site is the 20-acre Marie Butler Leven Preserve (MBLP), in the McLean section of Fairfax County, where we have restored about 8 acres of forest understory. In 2010, we began working on meadow projects in three Fairfax County parks and at the BLM’s Meadowood Recreation Area, on the Mason Neck Peninsula. As of 2014, our meadow program includes 13 meadow sites – amounting to about 50.5 acres. Since 2005, we have been supplying native local-ecotype stock to elementary and secondary schools for the creation of educational native plant displays; our plants have reached about 45 such schools. Through our Tree Bank program we have over 220 acres of threatened tropical forest in conservation.

Financials

EARTH SANGHA INC
lock

Unlock financial insights by subscribing to our monthly plan.

Subscribe

Unlock nonprofit financial insights that will help you make more informed decisions. Try our 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.

Operations

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

lock

Connect with nonprofit leaders

Subscribe

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.

lock

Connect with nonprofit leaders

Subscribe

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.

EARTH SANGHA INC

Board of directors
as of 02/22/2022
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
Board chair

Chris Bright

President

Richard Haeuber

Ashley Todd Mattoon

Lisa Bright

Robert Jordan

USAID, retired

Mary Sylvia

Amy Fray

Kristine Lansing

Christian Lansing

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? No
  • 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? Yes
  • Board composition
    Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes
  • 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 2/3/2021

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
Male

The organization's co-leader identifies as:

Race & ethnicity
Asian/Asian American
Gender identity
Female

Race & ethnicity

Gender identity

 

Sexual orientation

No data

Disability

No data

Equity strategies

Last updated: 02/03/2021

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 review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
  • We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
Policies and processes
  • We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
  • We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.