Geoversity Foundation
Public records show a registered, tax-exempt organization in good standing.
Points to look into
- It reported loans to or from officers, directors or other insiders.
- It owes more than it owns.
These come from the organization's own tax return. There may be a good explanation; ask the charity.
What it says it does
Since 1990, Geoversity formerly known as Earth Train, has enabled youth to develop the skills, practical experience, global network necessary to become effective leaders for environmental stewardship and positive social change.
- Income
- $825,568
- Spending
- $853,020
- Spent on programs
- 99%
- Reserves
- 0 months of spending
- Largest source of income
- donations and private grants, 98%
- Employees
- 0
- Volunteers
- 95
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Financial health
Weak: 37 out of 100.
Reserves
4 of 35Spendable reserves would cover -0.0 months of spending.
Debt
0 of 20It owes 105% of what it owns.
Living within its means
8 of 15Spending exceeded income by 3% of income.
Income trend
10 of 15Income fell 3% on the year before.
Spending floor
15 of 1599% of spending went to programs and raising each dollar of donations cost 1 cents.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Governance
Fair: 64 out of 100.
Independent board
25 of 255 of 6 voting board members are independent.
Conflict of interest policy
15 of 15Has a written conflict of interest policy.
Whistleblower policy
0 of 8Reports no written whistleblower policy.
Record keeping policy
0 of 7Reports no 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.
Independent check of accounts
6 of 15Its accounts were not audited or reviewed by an independent accountant.
No reported misuse
0 of 10Reports at least one of: diversion of assets, excess benefits, loans to insiders.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, 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 (2)
- $252,538 spent. ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION Geoversitys environmental education programs focus on building biocultural leadership skills, learning from nature and ecology. SEE 2024 ACTIVITIES DESCRIBED ON SCHEDULE O. Geoversity Foundation www.geoversity.org has been empowering, training, and connection biocultural leaders across the globe for over three decades. Originally known as Earth Train, we started in 1991 with youth-led call-to-action conferences and train journeys across continents. This report covers the activities of Geoversity Foundation and of Geoversitys counterpart organization in Panama, Fundacion Geoversity, a recognized not-for-profit private foundation wholly dedicated to the mission of Geoversity. Geoversity leads a growing ecosystem of individuals and organizations united in the mission of biocultural regeneration and leadership. Our programs are grounded in the hard day-to-day work of watershed conservation, economic development in partnership with nature and the fight to avert global ecological collapse, always in team with local and indigenous communities, scientists, designers, business and young leaders. We offer immersive learning experiences, guided by applied science, natural design, and indigenous wisdom, for emerging and accomplished biocultural leaders. Geoversity is Natures University. Our main campus, located less than a two-hour drive from Panama City, Panama, is the 1,250-acre Centro Mamoni within the 12,000-acre Mamoni Valley Preserve that Geoversity co-founded in 2001. Our affiliated campuses are the Seahorse Nature Reserve on the Atlantic coast of Bocas del Toro, Panama, under the direction of Howard Dryden, Ph.D., and, under the direction of Tamsin Woolley-Barker, Ph.D., the Borrego Institute for Living Design on the edge of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park east of San Diego, California. In addition to the programs and projects conducted by Geoversity that are covered in www.geoversity.org, we 1 Completed the construction of the Bamboo Ark Pavilion - the dining and meeting space at Centro Mamoni, Geoversitys science and leadership campus. We also completed the construction of Casa Melanie Nelson, our large bamboo and wood dormitory for students and visiting scientists. As reported in 2023, this ambitious upgrade of our facilities was accomplished with local talent and interns all benefiting with on-the-job training and special design workshops led by our staff and Panamanian architect Anthony Lay. 2 With funding from Rewild, the Wildlife Conservation Society and European Union, we launched the Young Forest Guardians, an ongoing initiative aimed at engaging a new generation of territorial guardians in Panama. Drawing on Indigenous ancestral knowledge, local experience, and modern environmental science, it is educating rural children and youth about forest conservation, climate resilience, and cultural heritage. Its start-up this year involved 72 children and youth and 19 adults in workshops and citizen science projects conducted in the Mamoni Valley and in rural schools in the province of Colon. 3 Building on the Diammayala Alliance for the conservation of water sheds in the areas the inter oceanic canal Gunayala, the autonomous territory of the Guna people and of the upper Mamoni, we conducted introductory workshops in digital mapping and the use of drones for territorial surveillance, including one in team with professors and students with the University of Redlands. 4 In the works for over five years, we received the first of two donation of Guna art and artifacts from the collector Thomas Hannaher. The Hannaher collection is the largest and most extensively documented collection of Guna art and artifacts in the world. This historic and generous act is the first step in a process of repatriation and the establishment of an institute/museum of indigenous culture in Panama. Thanks to a grant from a Rockefeller family foundation, we launched the production of the book Guna Art led by Hannaher in team with Guna cultural and youth leaders and the Guna anthropologist Cebaldo de Leon. The book will be published in October of 2025. 5 We conducted in-depth one week and more field trips at Centro Mamoni and at other Diammayala Alliance locations for the following secondary schools The International School of Panama The Metropolitan School of Panama The Casco School Canada School Toronto Deerfield Academy The Branson School and The Cottonwood School. We also conducted a special two-week program for Northeastern University. 6 Thanks to a grant from the Bailey Wildlife Foundation, we started the development of a model 200-acre reforestation and rewilding project in connection with our Caracol River Basin Restoration Project at Centro Mamoni. The project will feature a strong scientific monitoring element and a focus on long-term benefits to edge communities, that is populations located next to ecologically important areas. 7 Under the leadership of Juan Carlos Monterrey, we conducted at Centro Mamoni the first Democratic Leadership Accelerator Intensive for 18 young Panamanian leaders, with a faculty that included the former Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Carmen Yulin Cruz and the architect and former Panama City Vice Mayor Raisa Banfield. 8. Consistent with our emphasis on collaboration, Geoversity Foundation funded In collaboration with The Bailey Wildlife Foundation, a grant to Yaguara Panama for jaguar habitat protection and research In collaboration with the Bacon Foundation, a grant to Wetlands International Panama, a grant to the Panamanian environmental organization CIAM and multi-year coral reef research led by the Panamanian science group CCIMBIO. In collaboration with Islas Secas Foundation, a grant to OPAVA, for innovation in plastic recycling in rural areas. Juan Carlos Monterrey concluded his outstanding work as Geoversitys Executive President to assume the highly influential position of National Climate Management Director with Panamas Ministry of the Environme
- $589,256 spent. CONSERVATION Geoversitys conservation programs focus on creating models of conservation communities, of which the Mamoni Valley Preserve is our lead model - that is ecological conservation and restoration, in harmony with human habitat and enterprise. SEE 2024 ACTIVITIES DESCRIBED ON SCHEDULE O. Geoversity Foundation www.geoversity.org has been empowering, training, and connection biocultural leaders across the globe for over three decades. Originally known as Earth Train, we started in 1991 with youth-led call-to-action conferences and train journeys across continents. This report covers the activities of Geoversity Foundation and of Geoversitys counterpart organization in Panama, Fundacion Geoversity, a recognized not-for-profit private foundation wholly dedicated to the mission of Geoversity. Geoversity leads a growing ecosystem of individuals and organizations united in the mission of biocultural regeneration and leadership. Our programs are grounded in the hard day-to-day work of watershed conservation, economic development in partnership with nature and the fight to avert global ecological collapse, always in team with local and indigenous communities, scientists, designers, business and young leaders. We offer immersive learning experiences, guided by applied science, natural design, and indigenous wisdom, for emerging and accomplished biocultural leaders. Geoversity is Natures University. Our main campus, located less than a two-hour drive from Panama City, Panama, is the 1,250-acre Centro Mamoni within the 12,000-acre Mamoni Valley Preserve that Geoversity co-founded in 2001. Our affiliated campuses are the Seahorse Nature Reserve on the Atlantic coast of Bocas del Toro, Panama, under the direction of Howard Dryden, Ph.D., and, under the direction of Tamsin Woolley-Barker, Ph.D., the Borrego Institute for Living Design on the edge of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park east of San Diego, California. In addition to the programs and projects conducted by Geoversity that are covered in www.geoversity.org, we 1 Completed the construction of the Bamboo Ark Pavilion - the dining and meeting space at Centro Mamoni, Geoversitys science and leadership campus. We also completed the construction of Casa Melanie Nelson, our large bamboo and wood dormitory for students and visiting scientists. As reported in 2023, this ambitious upgrade of our facilities was accomplished with local talent and interns all benefiting with on-the-job training and special design workshops led by our staff and Panamanian architect Anthony Lay. 2 With funding from Rewild, the Wildlife Conservation Society and European Union, we launched the Young Forest Guardians, an ongoing initiative aimed at engaging a new generation of territorial guardians in Panama. Drawing on Indigenous ancestral knowledge, local experience, and modern environmental science, it is educating rural children and youth about forest conservation, climate resilience, and cultural heritage. Its start-up this year involved 72 children and youth and 19 adults in workshops and citizen science projects conducted in the Mamoni Valley and in rural schools in the province of Colon. 3 Building on the Diammayala Alliance for the conservation of water sheds in the areas the inter oceanic canal Gunayala, the autonomous territory of the Guna people and of the upper Mamoni, we conducted introductory workshops in digital mapping and the use of drones for territorial surveillance, including one in team with professors and students with the University of Redlands. 4 In the works for over five years, we received the first of two donation of Guna art and artifacts from the collector Thomas Hannaher. The Hannaher collection is the largest and most extensively documented collection of Guna art and artifacts in the world. This historic and generous act is the first step in a process of repatriation and the establishment of an institute/museum of indigenous culture in Panama. Thanks to a grant from a Rockefeller family foundation, we launched the production of the book Guna Art led by Hannaher in team with Guna cultural and youth leaders and the Guna anthropologist Cebaldo de Leon. The book will be published in October of 2025. 5 We conducted in-depth one week and more field trips at Centro Mamoni and at other Diammayala Alliance locations for the following secondary schools The International School of Panama The Metropolitan School of Panama The Casco School Canada School Toronto Deerfield Academy The Branson School and The Cottonwood School. We also conducted a special two-week program for Northeastern University. 6 Thanks to a grant from the Bailey Wildlife Foundation, we started the development of a model 200-acre reforestation and rewilding project in connection with our Caracol River Basin Restoration Project at Centro Mamoni. The project will feature a strong scientific monitoring element and a focus on long-term benefits to edge communities, that is populations located next to ecologically important areas. 7 Under the leadership of Juan Carlos Monterrey, we conducted at Centro Mamoni the first Democratic Leadership Accelerator Intensive for 18 young Panamanian leaders, with a faculty that included the former Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Carmen Yulin Cruz and the architect and former Panama City Vice Mayor Raisa Banfield. 8. Consistent with our emphasis on collaboration, Geoversity Foundation funded In collaboration with The Bailey Wildlife Foundation, a grant to Yaguara Panama for jaguar habitat protection and research In collaboration with the Bacon Foundation, a grant to Wetlands International Panama, a grant to the Panamanian environmental organization CIAM and multi-year coral reef research led by the Panamanian science group CCIMBIO. In collaboration with Islas Secas Foundation, a grant to OPAVA, for innovation in plastic recycling in rural areas. Juan Carlos Monterrey concluded his outstanding work as Geoversitys Executive President to assume the highly
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, 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 September 7, 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 September 30, 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 September 10, 2026.
Is it keeping up with its IRS filings? Passed.
Most recent return on file covers the year ending December 2024.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
How long has it been tax-exempt? Passed.
Recognized by the IRS since May 1994.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 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 7, 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.