Save Mount Diablo

“Board members Claudia Hein and Scott Hein are married.”

“Form 990 is prepared by an outside tax professional. The form is then reviewed by the organization's management. After a full review, the final version of the tax return is provided to all members of the organization's voting body. A representative of management authorizes the final form 990 which is then e-filed with the internal revenue service.”

“Members of the Board of Trustees review all potential conflicts of interest periodically. Top management and all Board members are required to disclose potential conflicts and any related party affiliations. The organization seeks full transparency on all relationships. Any potential conflicts (in fact or appearance) are discussed openly and resolved in accordance with the organization's policies and procedures.”

“The Executive Committee (comprised of elected Board members) reviews the compensation of all high-level personnel periodically in accordance with IRS rules and regulations. Efforts are made to secure compensation data from industry sources in order to determine competitiveness and appropriateness of salaries. Every effort is made to ensure that the process is thorough and transparent in accordance with IRS guidelines and the organization's policies and procedures.”

“Compensation of other personnel and highly compensated employees is reviewed periodically by members of management and by the Executive Committee (comprised of elected Board Members). Efforts are made to secure compensation data from industry sources in order to determine competitiveness and appropriateness of salaries and all related benefits. All decisions are then documented in personnel files.”

“Tax returns are available for download from several websites and by request from the organization's office in Walnut Creek, California.”

“All of the organization's governing documents, financial statements, and other legal filings are maintained in a secure environment and held available for inspection by tax authorities and the general public. Tax returns are posted annually to our website and to www.guidestar.org (where they are available for viewing as electronic copies) and are also available by request from the organization's office.”

“Capitalized Land Acquisition and Related Costs = $190123”

“Change in value of charitable remainder trusts = -$72285”

“Biological diversity, and historic and agricultural heritage; enhance our area's quality of life; and provide educational and recreational opportunities consistent with protection of natural resources.”

“Helped east bay regional park district secure an option agreement to protect the strategic 768-acre finley road ranch so it will become an important new staging area for existing and future trails.for decades, smd was able to buy properties and then quickly transfer them to a public park agency. That model kept our land management responsibilities very limited, and the projects we undertook were mainly focused on trash removal, fire abatement, and some restoration work.about a decade ago, the transfer time started to slow down. In part, the slowdown in transfer time was because california state parks stopped acquiring new land in order to focus on maintaining the parks it already owned.it has been about 16 years since a property was added to mount diablo state park, something we have been working diligently to change. However, as our ambitions about preserving the diablo wild lands grew, we began to buy more land further away from existing parks with a strategy to connect them in the future.we continue to negotiate complex property transactions, the fruits of which will be brought to bear in the coming years. Our partners, especially the east contra costa habitat conservancy and east bay regional park district, have continued the work to encircle the marsh creek and morgan territory areas in open space and place critical protections over essential habitat corridors. We meet with landowners and developers alike to push for high-quality mitigation associated with new developments. We coordinate closely with our partners on strategic additions to the overall network of preserved lands on and around mount diablo.land use:save mount diablo regularly monitors the agendas of 50 different planning committees and public agencies. This work can take time as we research, write letters, testify and collaborate on solutions. We responded to about 25 land use projects in 2022 to 2023 fiscal year.won a second lawsuit against seeno/discovery builders and pittsburg over the proposed faria development project.achieved having the concord city council stop the seeno/discovery builders group from becoming master developer for the concord reuse project.furthered our diablo range expansion work developing new partners and advancing advocacy efforts to protect important lands like tesla and del puerto canyon.”

“More than 600 volunteers completed over 5000 hours of service in the 2022 to 2023 fiscal year. They have supported all our activities across departments throughout the year. Recurrent stewardship volunteers include: 27 property monitors and 84 volunteer stewards. Volunteersour volunteers are the heroes and heroines of land preservation. They help make our work possible, whether it be by helping restore ecological systems, becoming a hike leader, assisting with event registration, staffing aid stations, taking photos or setting up equipment. Their hard work and generosity are what help make this organizations efforts so successful.created a beautiful new public trail at our curry canyon ranch, with volunteers, about 1.25-miles long connecting mount diablo state parks knobcone point road to riggs canyon road; a strategic recreational link for public access to two portions of mount diablo state park.stewards also continued monthly property monitoring outings, and organized small workdays to weed, mulch, and clean up our properties.staff continued monitoring impacts to vegetation in the jackass canyon area, with ca state parks, and cal fire.with our partners at the lindsay wildlife experience, we continued to release rehabilitated american kestrels into the mount diablo foothills, strengthening wildlife corridors.advanced our 10,000 trees and native plants project, planting and caring for more than 2000 plants into our rehabilitation sites, many of those plants being california milkweed for monarch forge, building and strengthening habitat for wildlife.we monitor and remediate storm damage on all of our properties. We installed a solar well and a wildlife trough at mc7 to aid in fire abatement in utilizing cattle at mc7, and to provide a drinking source and habitat for wildlife year-round. We installed 4000 feet of cattle exclusion fence at mc7 to maintain and strengthen wildlife habitat and water quality in marsh creek. Staff led the 3rd annual pine canyon cleanup with the mount diablo state park, the east bay regional park district, the american alpine club and the bay area climbers coalition, where we removed invasive species, graffiti, and trash from the pine canyon area, as well as hazardous fuel load from the knobcone point area with a chipper.we hosted major cleanup workdays including a coastal cleanup workday in kirker creek with the help of a small group of volunteers to remove 10 garbage bags of trash. At big bend, a major cleanup project included demolition and removal of an old and abandoned trailer. Over 84,000 pounds of waste and reclycling were removed in 2022 to 2023 fiscal year.”

“Local schools; our dr. Mary bowerman science and research program which provides small grants to encourage more scientific research in the northern diablo range, bioblitz, etc.enabled the public to enjoy our new mangini ranch educational preserve, run with a free online reservation system with over 4 miles of trails built with the help of volunteers and local students.completed our 50th annivesary celebrations, including an extensive oral history project about save mount diablo that is housed at uc berkeleys bancroft library.we celebrated our 50th anniversary moonlight on the mountain gala fundraiser. Over five hundred people attended the event, which raised funds to support save mount diablos conservation, stewardship, advocacy and education work.set all-time high fundraising records with our mid-year appeal, moonlight on the mountain, and year-end appeal.secured a better/smaller office at 201 north civic drive in walnut creek that lowered our rent and reduced our carbon footprint by providing more energy efficient infastructure.as we reflect back on the completed april 1, 2022 to march 31, 2023 fiscal year, we feel immense gratitude for our supporters because they helped us complete another highly successful year from a programmatic, financial and overall organizational perspective.”