The Nature Conservancy

“The form 990 is prepared by cohn reznick, based on financial statements audited by pricewaterhousecoopers, and other internally generated information by the conservancy's tax services team. The prepared 990 form is reviewed by the conservancy's tax services team and members of senior management. The board audit committee then reviews for any significant issues or judgments relating to disclosures. Copies are provided to the full board of directors prior to filing with the irs.”

“The nature conservancy's monitoring and enforcement of its conflicts policy is governed by its conflict of interest standard operating procedure ("sop") which establishes procedures for staff to identify conflicts and address them in a timely and appropriate manner to help tnc protect its reputation and maintain the trust of its staff, donors, and others with whom it does business. This sop explains how to identify actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest as well as how to disclose and address conflicts of interest that can not be avoided. A conflict of interest exists when an individual's personal, social, or financial interests interfere or conflict with the best interests of tnc. This happens when a person who is responsible for acting in the best interests of tnc has another interest or loyalty that may make it difficult to perform their tnc work objectively and effectively and act in tnc's best interests. As used throughout the sop, the terms "conflict and "conflict of interest" include: 1. Actual conflicts of interest; 2. Potential conflicts of interest (situations that could become actual conflicts in the future based upon foreseeable events or the passage of time); and 3. Perceived conflicts of interest (situations that others could reasonably perceive to be, or have the appearance of, a conflict of interest). Generally, conflicts can arise from relationships between the conservancy and staff, board members, trustees and advisors, and the families of all those groups. There are very specific rules regarding who is a "covered person" that are governed, in great part, by the u.s. Internal revenue service requirements for public charities. If a conflict of interest is identified which cannot reasonably be avoided or it is not in the best interest of the conservancy to do so, before proceeding with the proposed activity, review and approval to proceed must be obtained from management and the tnc conflicts committee. While a request for approval of a proposed course of action is pending or being considered, the transaction or activity cannot proceed. Requests are submitted using an online disclosure tool that is accessible by all staff. The toil includes answers to required questions depending on the type of conflict and requires the submitting staff member to explain why the conflict cannot or should not be avoided and recommend a course of action designed to minimize the conflict's potential adverse consequences. Proof of approval from the staff's suprvisor and, where requried, businss unit leader is uploaded to the tool along with the submission. The ethics and copliance team and tnc attorneys may be consulted to assist in analyzing conflicts. A. Board and key employee certifications. All conservancy board members and key employees (including officers) shall annually complete a conflicts of interest and affiliations disclosure form to identify conflicts and ensure any conficts are properly addressed and disclosed on the 990 where required. Board members and trustees receive training when they onboard and routinely thereafter on the need to and the process for disclosing conflicts for review by the conflicts committee. B. Staff certification. All conservancy staff shall annually certify that they have read the conflicts of interest policy and sop and have disclosed all conflicts. C. Supervisor approval required for tnc staff disclosing a conflict. As part of the required disclosure process, tnc staff must obtain review and approval from their immediate supervisor, and where required from their business unit manager, prior to submitting a conflict disclosure for review by the conflicts committee. These approvals indicates that they support the staff member pursing the proposed activity and approve. The recommended course of action and proposed mitigation as sufficient to manage the conflict. D. Conflicts committee review required. The conflicts committee reviews and makes determinations about whether the confl”

“The president and chief executive officer's, as well as members of the executive team's performances and compensation are reviewed annually by the board of directors. The performance and compensation of all other key employees is reviewed annually by their direct supervisor. All compensation amounts are based on information provided by an independent compensation consultant who utilizes comparable data from form 990's from other organizations and compensation survey's and studies to ensure reasonableness.”

“The nature conservancy's governing documents, conflict of interest policy and financial statements are available to the public via our website: nature.org.”

“Tnc's accounting methodology through the 2020 tax year does not attribute revenue or all of its programmatic expenses to a specific program, as many times projects make progress toward more than one of tnc's conservation goals. As such, the separation of programs in part iii would not accurately reflect the programmatic expenditures and corresponding revenue. The amounts presented on part iii, line 4a represent the total for all of the programs. Protect oceans, land and water: during the 2020 tax year, tnc worked towards making sure the oceans thrive through new and better-managed protected areas, improving the quality and amount of water available in freshwater ecosystems, conserving critical forests, grasslands, and other habitats rich in carbon and biodiversity. Tnc worked with the internal federation of the red cross and red crescent societies (ifrc) on building long-term strategies for coastal protection in the dominican republic, grenada and jamaica. The project set out a range of natural solutions to address the threats of eroding coastlines, sea level rise and storm surges. Mangrove forests and seagrass held firm against the forces of coastal erosion. Coral reefs reduced wave energy while nurturing marine life near communities where fishing is a way of life. This project is bringing nature back to health, while safeguarding places where people live and work. In belize, tnc helped create a new financial mechanism that reduced the country's debt burden while generating significant funding for marine conservation. The deal restructured approximately $550 million of belize's external commercial debt at a more favorable rate and secured long-term sustainable financing for ocean conservation. The belize blue bond project tripled belize's budget for ocean conservation over the next two decades and set up a $92 million endowment to sustain long-term conservation funding. Tnc and partners closed a $76.5 million deal to protect 236,000 acres of the largest remaining tropical rainforest in the americas north of the amazon. The new belize maya forest preserve connects an 11-million-acre network of protected land across belize, mexico and guatemala. Tnc also joined a new collaboration, called enduring earth, to protect nature, work with local communities and sustain human well-being at a large scale. Tnc, the pew charitable trusts, the world wildlife fund and zomalab have already collectively conserved lands in canada, costa rica, the amazon, bhutan and peru through agreements that reinforce the rights of indigenous peoples and create opportunities for sustainable economic growth. The enduring earth partners will work to help countries around the world to conserve approximately 2 million square miles of lands, freshwater and oceans collectively through completing close to 20 projects by 2030 in such places as colombia, namibia, kenya, gabon, and mongolia. Through tnc's sustainable rivers program, a public-private collaboration with the army corps of engineers, scientists are bringing a 21st-century perspective and restoring flows to more closely mimic life-sustaining pulses while averting downstream flooding by helping with shift management plans for u.s. Dams. Tnc is helping rethink strategies for infrastructure on 11,000 river miles across the nation. Tnc assisted atchison county, missouri with its new floodplain prioritization tool to study how to reduce the risks of future floods and rebuild the levee in its new location. Tnc is continuing to work with communities to restore and reconnect 750,000 acres of river floodplains. Tnc also helped protect two of the last free-flowing rivers in europe from hydropower development by creating a path for protecting rivers in the balkans. Tnc is building a global strategy to help communities create similar permanent legal protections for their rivers. Provide water and food sustainably: during the 2020 tax year, tnc made progress towards global-scale sustainable fishing, promoting sustainab”

“Contract/professional fees: program service expenses 97,267,103. Management and general expenses 7,448,398. Fundraising expenses 8,501,384. Total expenses 113,216,885.”

“Valuation gain/loss on non-tl assets and liabilities 28,387,604. Split interest change in valuation 54,653,441. Valuation gain/loss on trade land -49,309. Intercompany transfers 4,721,581. Revenue adjustment to beginning net assets 8,429,752.”

“The form 990, including the prior period adjustments, was prepared based on the best information available at the time of filing. Certain adjustments made relate to forms 5471 and have been reflected on this form 990.”