Verra
Public records show a registered, tax-exempt organization in good standing.
What it says it does
Verra drives transformational action on climate change and sustainable development through high-integrity standards that mobilize finance and deliver real impact.
- Income
- $30.6 million
- Spending
- $31.6 million
- Spent on programs
- 93%
- Reserves
- 8.6 months of spending
- Largest source of income
- fees for its services, 95%
- Employees
- 68
- Volunteers
- 193
- Highest pay
- $409,242, chief executive officer
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Financial health
Good: 86 out of 100. Higher than 68% of charities in its peer group (environment, $10m to $100m).
Reserves
28 of 35Spendable reserves would cover 8.6 months of spending.
Debt
20 of 20It owes 14% of what it owns.
Living within its means
8 of 15Spending exceeded income by 3% of income.
Income trend
15 of 15Income rose 10% on the year before.
Spending floor
15 of 1593% of spending went to programs and raising each dollar of donations cost 5 cents.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Governance
Strong: 100 out of 100. Higher than 35% of charities in its peer group (environment, $10m to $100m).
Independent board
25 of 2510 of 10 voting board members are independent.
Conflict of interest policy
15 of 15Has a written conflict of interest policy.
Whistleblower policy
8 of 8Has a written whistleblower policy.
Record keeping policy
7 of 7Has a written policy on keeping and destroying records.
Board minutes
5 of 5Keeps minutes of board meetings.
Board sees the tax return
10 of 10Gave the board a copy of this return before filing it.
Pay set independently
5 of 5Sets its chief executive's pay through independent review and comparison.
Independent check of accounts
15 of 15Its accounts were audited by an independent accountant.
No reported misuse
10 of 10Reports no diversion of assets, excess benefits or loans to insiders.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Impact evidence
Describes programs. Its tax return describes what it does but we have found no measurable results in it.
Programs described in its return (4)
- $27.9 million spent. VCS Program: The Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program certifies projects that reduce and remove greenhouse gas emissions. Projects undergo a rigorous development and assessment process before applying for registration with the VCS Program. Projects are issued Verified Carbon Units which they can use to finance their activities. Under the VCS Program, Verra also operates the Jurisdictional and Nested REDD+ Framework that enables jurisdictional REDD+ programs and nested projects to account for and verify their forest-related emission reduction activities.Continued in Schedule O VCS Program Version 5: Verra released version 5 of the VCS Program in 2025. This updated version introduces the program's most comprehensive social and environmental safeguards and places communities at the center of climate action. It also ensures that the program enables carbon markets to maximize their intended climate benefits. Version 5 was built through extensive stakeholder engagement, including three public consultations and dialogues with leading experts and professionals. The development of this version focused on the following three core objectives: - Increasing program integrity - Enhancing program accessibility and usability - Refining the program scope for maximum impact Some of the larger changes include the introduction of market-leading initiatives, such as a pilot for innovative approaches to managing non-permanence risk and requirements that advance financial transparency and fair benefit sharing. In 2025, Verra launched the following new methodologies in the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program: VCS Methodology VM0051 Improved Management in Rice Production Systems incentivizes the adoption of innovative management practices in rice production systems and will enable buyers to support the scaling of improved rice management technologies and food security while helping them meet their climate targets. VCS Methodology VM0052 Accelerated Retirement of Coal-Fired Power Plants Using a Just Transition quantifies the climate benefits of early coal plant retirement. This methodology is built around the principles of a just transition, supporting workers and communities affected by early coal plant closures by putting clear protections in place: from local job creation to energy access and essential social safeguards. The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) serves as a quasi-regulatory body for the market and has developed the Core Carbon Principles (CCPs), the industry benchmark for high-quality carbon credits. After the ICVCM approved Verra's VCS Program and three methodologies as meeting the CCPs in 2024, it announced in 2025 that the following five VCS methodologies also meet the CCPs: VM0050 Energy Efficiency and Fuel-Switch Measures in Cookstoves, v1.0 VM0047 Afforestation, Reforestation, and Revegetation, v1.1 VM0044 Biochar Utilization in Soil and Non-Soil Applications, v1.2 VM0045 Improved Forest Management Using Dynamic Matched Baselines from National Forest Inventories, v1.2 VM0042 Improved Agricultural Land Management, v2.2 CORSIA: In 2025, the VCS Program was approved for the second phase, first compliance period (2027-2029) of CORSIA. This represents an extension of previous approvals. Article 6: Together with Singapore's National Climate Change Secretariat and Gold Standard, Verra published the final version of the Article 6.2 Crediting Protocol to help operationalize carbon markets under the Paris Agreement. The protocol will enable governments to use carbon credits issued to projects registered with independent crediting standards to meet their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and sustainable development goals.
- $1.2 million spent. CCBS Program: The Climate Community and Biodiversity Standards (CCBS) Program certifies projects that simultaneously address climate change, support local communities and smallholders, and conserve biodiversity. Many land-based projects register in both the CCBS Program and the VCS Program. These projects include reforestation, afforestation, vegetation, forest restoration, agroforestry, and sustainable agriculture projects.
- $189,366 spent. Plastics Waste Reduction Standard Program: The Plastic Waste Reduction Standard Program (Plastic Program) enables the consistent accounting, independent auditing and crediting of new or scaled-up waste collection and recycling projects. Projects are issued Plastic Credits which they can use to sustain and/or scale up their operations. The program seeks to catalyze socially-responsible waste recovery and recycling efforts around the world.
- SD VISta Program: The Sustainable Development Verified Impact Standard (SD VISta) is a framework for assessing and reporting on the sustainable development benefits of project-based activities. It helps unlock new sources of finance to support and scale up high-impact efforts that help advance the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In 2025, we focused our efforts in the SD VISta Program around operationalizing version 1.0 of the Nature Framework. Early in the year, we welcomed applications from validation/verification bodies (VVBs) to audit Nature Framework projects. We also implemented a market-leading digital-first approach to project registration when we officially opened the formal registration process to our Nature Framework pilot projects. We closed out the year with the exciting news that the Nature Framework certification process will open to all projects on January 1, 2026. Scope 3 Standard Program: In 2024, Verra advanced work to develop a Scope 3 Standard Program which will help companies address their Scope 3 emissions. Scope 3 emissions often are most of a company's emissions and are therefore critical to reduce. The program is well-suited to drive investment and scale up in-value-chain climate action. In 2025, we took critical steps toward finalizing the Scope 3 Standard (S3S Program). We ran a public consultation on preliminary program documents to gather feedback on the clarity, comprehensiveness, and feasibility of essential program rules, concepts, and associated guidance. We also advanced the development of the program with a set of pilots to inform the refinement of program rules and the adaptation of select VCS methodologies for use at the initial launch of the S3S Program. Additionally, we successfully introduced the S3S Program sponsorship initiative and secured our first sponsorship from Bayer. Program Development and Innovation (across all programs): Verra continuously improves its organizational infrastructure and systems that underpin the operation of all its programs. This enables Verra to meet the needs and scale up the opportunities of the markets in which they operate. -Improve project review processes and client relations: Verra also took steps to further strengthen its project review processes and enhance client relations by (1) introducing updated service-level agreements (SLAs) for project review requests; the revised SLAs differentiate between request type, program(s) used, and a newly introduced complexity level factor of a given project review request, providing proponents with more specific and nuanced information about when they can expect completion of their requests; and (2) beginning to test a new prioritization process for verification approval requests in December; under this pilot, project proponents may request placement in a priority queue so that the review of their request can begin sooner. -Performance Monitoring Program for Auditors: Verra also continued to implement a Performance Monitoring Program for its validation/verification bodies (VVBs), which consists of oversight activities that enable Verra to monitor the performance of VVBs and take action based on those observations; by developing VVB performance scorecards, which are summary reports of a VVB's performance, we were able to increase the integrity of our project review process and reduce review workload in our system. -Advisory Groups and Committees: Verra convenes a number of advisory or working groups and multi-stakeholder committees that provide strategic resources to support the development of its standards programs. In 2025, Verra utilized 193 volunteers globally to do this work. -Digitalization Initiatives: Verra continued to advance its multiyear digitalization initiative in 2025. Verra's digital platforms and tools make our processes smoother, more efficient, and more accessible for users worldwide, providing enhanced support for climate and sustainability projects. Instructions and demo videos for various tools have been created and published for wider distribution. Specific initiatives to further expand Verra's digital tools included the following: 1) We announced a new, long-term digital transformation collaboration with the Hedera Foundation. Through this industry-first integration between Hedera Guardian and the Verra Project Hub, we are accelerating the development of next-generation digital tools to enhance the transparency, auditability, and integrity of methodologies and monitoring systems in the carbon markets. A five-year investment from Hedera will further accelerate the digitalization of additional methodologies and expand the capabilities of the Verra Project Hub. 2) By the end of 2025, our Digital Project Submission Tool supported 23 methodologies across multiple programs, with the digitalization of many others underway. 3) We announced a partnership with S&P Global Energy (formerly Commodity Insights) to develop a next-generation Verra Registry powered by S&P Global's Environmental Registry software. By moving toward a more scalable, interoperable, and digitally integrated infrastructure, this collaboration aims to strengthen the integrity, accessibility, and performance of the carbon markets. Integration between the registry and the Verra Project Hub will create a more connected digital ecosystem that supports efficient credit issuance, tracking, and retirement while enabling future innovation across voluntary and compliance carbon markets. 4) We are actively partnering to enable eight digital monitoring, reporting, and verification (DMRV) pilots as a critical capability for supporting high-frequency issuances and an end-to-end digital workflow. Initial credits were generated by the Foumbouni-Mitsamiouli solar farm project (Verra Project 3788) in February 2026. 5) We digitalized all project review reports (PRRs). PRRs are the main way through which Verra communicates findings resulting from project reviews with validation/verificati
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Legitimacy checks
Is it registered with the IRS? Passed.
Listed in the IRS master file of tax-exempt organizations as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Has the IRS revoked its tax-exempt status? Passed.
Not on the IRS automatic revocation list.
Source: Automatic revocation of exemption list, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Are donations tax-deductible? Passed.
On the IRS list of organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.
Source: Publication 78 data: organizations eligible for tax-deductible contributions, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Is it keeping up with its IRS filings? Passed.
Most recent return on file covers the year ending December 2025.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
How long has it been tax-exempt? Passed.
Recognized by the IRS since December 2015.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Is it in good standing with state regulators? Passed.
Not on California's list of charities barred from soliciting. Other states are not yet checked.
Source: May Not Operate or Solicit for Charitable Purposes list, California Attorney General, Registry of Charities and Fundraisers, file dated October 21, 2026.
Ratings and checks are our reading of public records, using the published method. They are not a statement about anyone's honesty. If you work for this organization, you can send corrections or results, confirm you want gifts through Veridonate, or ask to be removed from giving.