2021-04-23T09:05:40-07:00 2020-12-31 203992688 Bay Business Group LLC 6402 Arlington Blvd Ste 900 Falls Church VA 22042 990 2020-01-01 541868546 Earth Sangha EART 7033333022 5101 I Backlick Road Annandale VA 22003 Chris Bright President 2021-04-23 true Christopher Bright 999009999 David Bradsher P00290229 7035330888 3 AAL1 IAL1 FAL1 2020 2022-09-23 18:48:47Z Chris Bright 5101 I Backlick Road Annandale VA 22003 499741 false X www.earthsangha.org X 1997 VA CONSERVATION, ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION, AND HELPING PEOPLE DEVELOP HEALTHIER CONNECTIONS TO THE LANDS AND WATERS AROUND THEM. 9 7 13 150 0 229158 266574 186296 232419 1141 474 578 10 417173 499477 2229 1136 0 237786 257132 0 24457 162711 164341 402726 422609 14447 76868 804983 926308 2879 47336 802104 878972 X The mission of the Earth Sangha shall be conservation as a psychological, social, and ecological practice. The Earth Sangha shall try to help people develop healthier connections to the lands and waters around them. Wherever the Earth Sangha works, its ecological practice shall focus on preserving or restoring local native-plant species and the natural communities of which those species form a part. false false 158345 232043 DC-Area Wild Plant Nursery:Propagation from the wild of about 320 plant species native to the greater Washington, DC, region for use in local ecological restoration projects. All stock is local ecotype (propagated directly from local wild native-plant populations). Some of these species are rare, either locally or on the state level; we are propagating them at the request of local government agencies, for use on their restoration sites. Our plants are also used in our own projects and in those of other nonprofits, friends of groups, individual restorationists, as well as government agencies managing local parkland and schoolyards. During 2020, about 51,575 native trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants were distributed from the nursery to local forests, meadows, and maintained landscapes. 91873 DC-Area Forest Restoration:On-going work at the 20-acre Marie Butler Leven Preserve in Fairfax County, Virginia. During 2020, the corona virus epidemic greatly reduced our volunteer effort at the Preserve. (We did our best to make sure that the volunteers that we did host, as well as our own staff, followed the standard anti-covid measures masks, distancing, and so on.) All told, about 84 people volunteered about 254 hours of their time to help suppress invasive alien vegetation in the parks 17-acre forest, and to restore native vegetation. Control efforts extended throughout most of the park but are far from complete. We also put in about 970 locally native trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, produced at our Wild Plant Nursery.We did similar work at three other Fairfax County parks: Rutherford, Elklick, and Fitzhugh. At Rutherford, a total of 97 volunteers (over the course of the year, not at once) spent about 290 hours removing invasives, and installing about 310 native plants. At Elklick, we continued our collaboration with the Fairfax County Park Authority on a meadow project that includes several locally rare species. And at Fitzhugh, we worked with the Park Authority to develop a planting plan to bolster the genetic diversity of a variety of native-plant populations in several of the parks meadows. We installed about 835 plants in those meadows. 90588 1136 Tropical Agroforestry: Tree Bank Hispaniola ProgramOperation of a community tree nursery and associated forest-conservation and tree-planting programs on the Dominican side of a portion of the Dominican Republic Haiti border, to slow deforestation and help small-holder farmers increase their incomes. During 2020, about 70 farms participated. Nursery activities were constrained because of the epidemic but we still managed to produce about 20,000 orchard, timber, and local-ecotype native tree seedlings; 13 native species were represented, all of them probably in decline in the wild. Our Forest Credit program, in which our local independent partner organization (the Asociacin de Productores de Bosque, Los Cerezos) extends low-cost credit to small-holder farmers in exchange for forest conservation easements, lent about $36,380 to 55 farms, in exchange for easements over about 341 acres of forest. (The easements are held by our Dominican partner organization.) Our 44.3-acre nature reserve, the regions only community-owned nature reserve, is protecting the headwaters of a village water supply. Our Rising Forests Coffee program is rehabilitating the regions shade-grown coffee, in the wake of the coffee leaf-rust epidemic of 2014-15; the epidemic killed virtually all of the regions coffee trees. Rising Forests is producing rust-resistant coffee trees for planting on local farms, as well as cocoa trees. Both coffee and cocoa are high-value crops that grow best under forest canopy, so our program is creating a powerful economic incentive to conserve forest, and we are continuing to restore additional patches of forest for underplanting with coffee and cocoa. 8996 375 349802 true true false false false false false false false false true false false false false false false false false true true true false false false false false false false false false false false false false false true false false false false false false false false false false true 1 0 true 13 true false false false false false false false 0 false false false false false false false X 9 7 true false false false false false false true false false false false true true true true true false false false VA X X X Chris Bright 7033333022 5101 I Backlick Road Annandale VA 22003 Chris Bright President 50.00 0.00 X X 60000 0 10982 Lisa Bright Exec Dir/Treas 50.00 0.00 X X 43000 0 4264 Christian Lansing Director 0.50 0.00 X 0 0 0 Kristine Lansing Director 0.50 0.00 X 0 0 0 Richard Haeuber Director 0.50 0.00 X 0 0 0 Ashley Todd Mattoon Director 0.30 0.00 X 0 0 0 Robert Jordan Director 1.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Mary Sylvia Board Chair 0.50 0.00 X X 0 0 0 Amy Frey Director 0.25 0.00 X 0 0 0 103000 15246 0 false false false 0 16150 250424 564 266574 Native Plant Sales 110000 232044 232044 Speaking Honoraria 110000 375 375 232419 738 738 0 0 0 264 -264 -264 -264 0 0 10 10 10 0 499477 232155 748 0 0 1136 1136 0 118246 93035 16156 9055 0 112839 88014 15798 9027 2160 1814 238 108 7375 6195 811 369 16512 12879 2312 1321 0 0 2894 2894 0 0 0 0 0 535 448 65 22 6111 4890 916 305 0 29996 21312 5839 2845 0 0 0 0 0 51368 50397 632 339 8730 8548 136 46 Tree bank outside services 20674 20674 Field Supplies 17666 17662 3 1 Credit Card Fees 6171 4405 1766 Equipment R and M 4049 4049 16147 14344 784 1019 422609 349802 48350 24457 249202 272880 249634 385372 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 482565 215088 306132 267477 564 0 0 0 15 15 804983 926308 2879 1129 46207 2879 47336 X 802104 878972 802104 878972 804983 926308 76868 X false false false X 228021 204303 230689 229158 266574 1158745 0 0 228021 204303 230689 229158 266574 1158745 252182 906563 541 648 -181 1141 738 2887 -581 475 -1092 578 10 -610 -263 -263 1160759 186296 0.78100 0.77190 X RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED 14444 949 13495 402160 161634 240526 65243 52313 12930 718 192 526 267477 true Central Amer/Caribbean 0 8 Program Services Forest Conservation 26775 8 8 26775 26775 Caribbean Forest Conservation 1136 Electronic Cash Paid 1 false false false false false false Part I, Line 2 - Grantmakers Explanation For Monitoring Use of Funds Outside US We monitor the funds themselves through bank records and receipts. We monitor their use through monthly reports, photos, site-survey data, and site visits, usually twice a year. Part I, Line 3f - Method of Accounting Cash Part I, Line 3f - Investments and Expenditures All funding is expenditure. Matthew Bright Officer Son 42000 Employee false Katherine Isaacson Officer in-law 42000 Employee false Schedule L, Part V Supplemental Information The son and the daughter-in-law of the President and Executive Director were employees of the organization during 2020. Form 990, Part III, Line 4d: Other Program Services Description OTHER PROGRAM SERVICES 4: DC-Area Forest Restoration:On-going work at the 20-acre Marie Butler Leven Preserve in Fairfax County, Virginia. During 2020, the corona virus epidemic greatly reduced our volunteer effort at the Preserve. (We did our best to make sure that the volunteers that we did host, as well as our own staff, followed the standard anti-covid measures masks, distancing, and so on.) All told, about 84 people volunteered about 254 hours of their time to help suppress invasive alien vegetation in the parks 17-acre forest, and to restore native vegetation. Control efforts extended throughout most of the park but are far from complete. We also put in about 970 locally native trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, produced at our Wild Plant Nursery.We did similar work at three other Fairfax County parks: Rutherford, Elklick, and Fitzhugh. At Rutherford, a total of 97 volunteers (over the course of the year, not at once) spent about 290 hours removing invasives, and installing about 310 native plants. At Elklick, we continued our collaboration with the Fairfax County Park Authority on a meadow project that includes several locally rare species. And at Fitzhugh, we worked with the Park Authority to develop a planting plan to bolster the genetic diversity of a variety of native-plant populations in several of the parks meadows. We installed about 835 plants in those meadows. Form 990, Part VI, Line 2: Description of Business or Family Relationship of Officers, Directors, Et The President and Executive Director of the Earth Sangha are married; their son and his spouse are also employees of the organization. See Schedule L.In addition, the organization's board of directors includes two sets of married individuals. Form 990, Part VI, Line 8: Explanation of No Contemporaneously Documentation of Meetings Line 8b: No such committees were in place during the year. Form 990, Part VI, Line 11b: Form 990 Review Process Form 990 is reviewed by the President, on behalf of the Board, and by our accountant. Form 990, Part VI, Line 12c: Explanation of Monitoring and Enforcement of Conflicts Relevant personnel must sign an annual disclosure. Form 990, Part VI, Line 19: Other Organization Documents Publicly Available Appropriate documents were made available upon request. Form 990, Part III, Line 4 The Organization had income of $232,043 from sales of native plants grown in the Wild Plant Nursery. This income is reported on line 9 of Part I. These sales are directly related to the Organization's tax-exempt purpose. See Part III line 4a.The organization received honoraria for speaking engagements related to its mission. See Part III line 4d.The Organization had income of $10 from occasional sales of t-shirts bearing Earth Sangha designs, reported on line 11 of Part I. This income is not reported as unrelated business income under the exclusion for income from activities that are not regularly carried on (IRC 512(a)(1)). The t-shirts are sold at or near cost; the entire cost of t-shirt purchases is recorded as an expense at the time of purchase by the Organization; no tshirt inventory was purchased in 2020. form 990, Statement on the Value of In-Kind Donations During 2020, our volunteer program was greatly reduced because of the epidemic; we did not hold any large volunteer events after March. The activities that we did host were all monitored for compliance with basic anti-COVID practices: wearing masks, social distancing, and so on. But even under these circumstances, our DC-area work was strengthened by a volunteer effort amounting to about 2,000 hours of service to our Wild Plant Nursery and the restoration sites that the nursery supports. (During normal years, that number is usually about 10,000 hours.) We value our volunteer effort at $28.46 per hour, which is the current (2019) value of volunteer time for Virginia, as recognized by Independent Sector (2019 is the most recent year for which a value was available). The total value of our 2020 volunteer effort was therefore $56,920.