Foundation for Global Sustainability Inc
Public records show a registered, tax-exempt organization in good standing.
What it says it does
The Foundation for Global Sustainability (FGS) works to restore balance between human activities and Earth's natural life support systems. It monitors environmental and social justice issues in Southern Appalachia. It represents its supporters and those who are concerned about developments that degrade ecosystem processes and the quality of life for ordinary citizens in public hearings and through comments on environmental impact statements. FGS cooperates with local, national and international organizations to promote planetary solidarity with Mother Earth and ALL its life forms to implement the Sustainable Development Goals. At HellbenderPress.org website, FGS increases public awareness of opportunities to reduce environmental damages, make businesses and institutions more sustainable, build resilient communities and adopt life styles that will preclude Earth's living conditions from deteriorating to an inhospitable level for future generations over centuries if not millennia.
- Income
- $98,284
- Spending
- $62,954
- Reserves
- 5.7 months of spending
- Largest source of income
- donations and private grants, 100%
Source: Form 990EZ for the year ending June 30, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Financial health
Good: 79 out of 100.
Reserves
20 of 35Spendable reserves would cover 5.7 months of spending.
Debt
20 of 20It owes 0% of what it owns.
Living within its means
15 of 15Income exceeded spending by 36% of income.
Source: Form 990EZ for the year ending June 30, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Governance
This organization files the short tax form, which does not ask about boards, policies or audits. That is normal for a small charity and is not a mark against it.
Source: Form 990EZ for the year ending June 30, 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 (3)
- $76,972 spent. The Foundation for Global Sustainability took last-minute action to prevent the imminent sale of a narrow, 4,000-feet-long strip of land that serves as an urban wildlife corridor near busy Middlebrook Pike in Knoxville, Tennessee. It would almost certainly have been subdivided and fenced off into multiple pieces, likely to include extra parking spaces, utility sheds or container storage for a variety of adjacent warehouses and businesses. The corridor provides connectivity for species that could not traverse this highly developed urban area. It also contributes a substantial portion of the total mature tree canopy in this section of the city. The action received much support from wildlife enthusiast and neighborhood residents.
- $38,207 spent. Hellbender Press continued its tradition of excellence in journalism in 2024 with award-winning coverage of the unprecedented disaster spawned by Tropical Storm Helene in the Southern Appalachians. Starting on September 27, 2024 Hellbender Press coverage of the storm provided practical information on relief and aid supplies, and personal and overarching accounts of the epic disaster. Stories were told via on-scene reporting, video and photography, and traditional and digital reporting methods by Editor and Publisher Thomas Fraser and writers and reporters Stambaugh, Wolf Naegeli and Paige Penland. The coverage ranged from Hartford to Hot Springs and Erwin, where multiple workers at a plastics facility died, and included multiple interviews with people who had helped victims, who had barely escaped with their lives, or both. Follow-up reporting included a look at the role climate change played in the disaster. Hellbender Press ultimately reported from three watersheds: The French Broad; the Pigeon; and the Nolichucky. This effort received three first-place awards in the digital-only category, all related to Helene - Hurricane Helene Breaking Coverage; Deadline-Breaking News Reporting; and Series-Package-Project Writing. Two of the judges drew parallels with news coverage of other historic events. "I was on the news desk of The Oklahoman in 1995 after the Murrah federal building attack. The Oklahoman perhaps created the textbook on how to interview victims in a mass casualty event. Here, the Hellbender Press - whether they knew it or not - followed the Oklahoman's victim coverage and delivered exemplary stories of people affected by impact and by the fatalities of families and friends. I know. I was there. Hellbender Press reported on the how and why of a mass flooding disaster ... outstanding. Reporting on the victims of the Appalachian flooding was exemplary. Well done, journalists!" "Hellbender Press, apparently a normal environmental news and information website, was transformed into a severe weather and flooding news reporting operation with quick efficiency that has to be envied by Oklahoma news outlets that face quickly developing weather news on a yearly basis every spring," said another judge. "The environmental writers of Hellbender Press posted stories, photos, graphics and maps as the flooding quickly developed. Hellbender Press showed how to cover fast breaking weather storms and apparently without the expertise of news outlets in tornado alley, including Oklahoma. An excellent achievement!"
- $1,080 spent. PLANETARY SOLIDARITY: FGS is building a regional portal and model program to support community members in developing strong individual and cooperative initiatives to adopt more sustainable and resilient ways of consumption, production, operation, interaction, and exchange. Initiatives may range from the personal to the global level. Our actions are focused on local or bioregional IMPLEMENTATION, yet not without a clear awareness and idea of how each initiative will contribute to the solution of a concerning planetary problem. By following the "Think Globally, Act Locally" ethos of solidarity with Mother Earth, all people and all other forms of life, participants can identify immediate, practical, locally adapted opportunities to achieve more effective improvements than governmental mandates could and would. -- For decades, concerned citizens have demanded that governments take action to avert global environmental catastrophe. With every day it becomes clearer how we are already engulfed by it and that its severity is ever accelerating. It is high time for everyone to do their best by themselves as well as with their family, neighbors, coworkers and everyone else they can motivate and engage! -- Hellbender Press is providing background information on local and regional issues. It emphasizes their implications for ecosystems and the global commons and highlights sustainable solutions. -- We also work with the University of Tennessee, other academic institutions and high schools to build a foundation for environmental journalism in East Tennessee. Interns get editorial advisement and opportunities to contribute stories that help them start a journalism career and get clips for their portfolio. They may even find an occasion to boost scholarly research and earn a shared professional byline. Four students participated in completing vignettes as part of a years long cooperation with the environmental journalism class of Dr Mark Littman, School of Journalism and Media, at UT Knoxville. Ivy Zhang, a college bound honors student, considered her experience working with the Hellbender a bonus on her applications. Recent marketing graduate Robert Norris approached Hellbender for substantive bylines to further his career and the popularity of his "Maryville College Podcast." Keenan Thomas, a recent graduate of the UT journalism school, reached out to Hellbender to further his writing career. He ultimately went on to become a staff writer at the Knoxville News Sentinel. To read examples of their stories, go to hellbenderpress.org/search and enter Ivy Zhang, Robert Norris, Carly Broady, Keenan Thomas, Elan Young or 'vignette,' then press the Return key.
Source: Form 990EZ for the year ending June 30, 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 June 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 February 1989.
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.