Where do they work?
Who works there?
What do they do?
What have they accomplished?
Financial data
How do they raise money?
Media and public discussion of the organization
Assessment by greendonor contributors

RAN works in the U.S.A., the Amazon, British Columbia, West Africa and Indonesia. It also works in alliance with environmental and human rights groups in 60 countries.

There are 27 full-time employees and one part-time employee, all of whom work out of San Francisco. RAN is assisted by thousands of volunteers and "activists".

All program work is done in-house, and some research is contracted out (e.g., RAN contracts with Global Exchange in its Jumpstart Ford Campaign).

The 13-member Board of Directors includes a former head of the Sierra Club Foundation, three authors/editors (one, Randall Hayes, is RAN's founder), a tax advisor, an entrepreneur, a fundraising consultant, a communications consultant, an activist/fundraiser, a lawyer, and a Greenpeace staffer.

Its 10-member Advisory Board includes conservation guru Norman Myers and Professor Anne Ehrlich of Columbia University.

RAN is a small and scrappy NGO that addresses the loss of old growth forest and unsustainable forestry worldwide by applying pressure to large companies whom they consider directly or indirectly responsible, including logging companies, banks that finance "environmentally destructive" practices, retailers of forest products and house builders, and, currently, the auto manufacturer with the worst fuel efficiency record (RAN's Jumpstart Ford Campaign is based on the concern over the impact of climate change on forests).

In addition, RAN's Protect-An-Acre Fund provides grants to organizations and communities (especially indigenous peoples) in rainforest regions to help them resist ecologically destructive practices and develop economic alternatives.

Finally, RAN's Grassroots Program assists grassroots organizations in developing campaigns worldwide, and its Education program provides schools with class presentations and information kits on rainforests and conservation problems and solutions.

RAN's campaigns against selected companies include organizing consumer boycotts, issuing press releases, running print ads and TV commercials, demonstrating at company offices, making shareholder resolutions, putting up posters and topical websites, staging media events by unfurling giant banners on office towers facing target companies, and even "bird-dogging" company executives. They use harsh rhetoric ("ethically bankrupt multinational corporations intent on fueling the out-of-control growth of a false economy that puts profits before people and the planet") and pithy hyperbole ("Ford is driving America's oil addiction"). But they get results. They sometimes end up negotiating at length with their corporate targets, who have made substantial policy changes.

Here are some outcomes to which RAN believes its campaigns contributed:

1985-1990  Burger King cancelled $35-million worth of Central American rainforest beef contracts. Thailand's Nam Choan dam, which would have flooded rainforest communites was halted when its funding was cancelled. Scott paper withdrew from a $653-million pulp mill project that "would have destroyed 2-million acres of Indonesian rainforest".

1991-1995  Conoco Oil abandoned a controversial oil project in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Ecuadorian indigenous people secured title to 2.5-million acres of their ancestral rainforest land with financial and other support from RAN. Stone Container Corporation was prevented from building a large chip mill in Costa Rica's Golfo Dulce area and from logging millions of acres in Honduras's La Mosquitia region. True Georthermal cancelled plans to build a power plant in Hawaii that would have impacted lowland tropical forest. Hollywood studios competed the switch from tropical plywood luaun to "sustainable alternatives". The New York Times announced it would not renew its contract with MacMillan Bloedel, which was logging in old growth forests in British Columbia.

1996-2000  Brazil recognized the indigenous land rights of Panara people. Two mining companies, RTZ and ODIN, abandoned their operations in Ecuador, citing "problems with environmental organizations". RAN launched its Old Growth Campaign, focussing on Home Depot's purchase and sale of old growth wood. Mitsubishi and RAN signed a Memorandum of understanding in which the company undertook a comprehensive environmental review of their business activities. MacMillan Bloedel announced that it would no longer conduct clearcut logging in old growth forests. The Clayoquot Rainforest Coalition secured commitments from "nearly 30 leading corporations" (including Kinko's, Nike, Starbucks, Hallmark and Hewlett-Packard) to ensure that they were not, through their suppliers, using old growth wood products. Ecuador's president issued a decree blocking future old exploration, mining, logging and colonization in the Cuyabeno-Imuya and Yasuni national parks, which together total 2.7-million acres. Home Depot announced in 1999 that it would end sales of wood from "endangered forest areas" by the end of 2002. Seven other large lumber retailers followed suit. RAN was among demonstrators at the WTO summit in Seattle and was pleased with the delay in the Global Free Logging Agreement. Campaign against Boise began.

2001-2002  Boise called off its Cascada Chile large chip mill project which "was likely to decimate the last of Chile's temperate rainforest". The Clinton administration formulated the Roadless Area Conservation Rule was published in the U.S. Federal Register, prohibiting road contstruction in 24-million acres of U.S. Forest Service Land and limiting land uses in a further 34-million acres (President Bush has since backtracked on the Roadless Rule and it has been subject to legal challenges in several states). The British Columbia government afforded "permanent protection or deferral" for the 3.5-million-acres Great Bear Rainforest. "Under pressure from RAN members and activists", various businesses cancelled their contracts with Boise, resulting in a loss of tens of millions of dollars of sales. Occidental Petroleum announced at its annual meeting that it would return to the Columbian government its controversial Siriri oil block, located in the territory of the U'wa people.

2003-2004  Boise Cascade, which by then was logging only in the USA and Brazil, finished phasing out logging in old growth forests and adopted a comprehensive new environmental policy that was approved of by RAN. Citigroup released a new environmental, which according to RAN, "commits the world's largest bank to take significant steps to ensure protection for endangered ecosystems and begin to confront the crisis of climate change". Several months later, Bank of American, which was to be RAN's next target, adopted "sweeping new climate change and forest protection policies".

Table 1: Basic financial data for the Rainforest Action Network for the most recent years.

FISCAL YEAR	FINANCIAL DATA rounded to million (M) or thousand (K)		EXPENDITURES percent of total expenses
Six-month period (1 Jan.-30 June, 2004)	Total revenue: Total expenses: Total assets (yr-end): Total liabilities (yr-end):	$1.00M $1.17M $1.04M $51K	Programs: Administration: Fundraising: ------------------ wages/benefits: professional & consulting fees:	72% 8% 19% ------------------ 46% 9%
2003	Total revenue: Total expenses: Total assets (yr-end): Total liabilities (yr-end):	$2.00M $1.99M $1.22M $56K	Programs: Administration: Fundraising: ------------------ wages/benefits: professional & consulting fees:	75% 7% 18% ------------------ 50% 8%
2002	Total revenue: Total expenses: Total assets (yr-end): Total liabilities (yr-end):	$2.24M $2.13M $1.23M $70K	Programs: Administration: Fundraising: ------------------ wages/benefits: professional & consulting fees:	66% 15% 20% ------------------ 52% 4%
NOTES:
Source: IRS Form 990 (courtesy of www.guidestar.org).
Assets: in the most recent year (2004), the main components were: savings and temporary cash investments (77%) grants receivable (11%) land, buildings, & equipment (4%) securities (2%) prepaid expenses and deferred charges (2%) pledges receivable (2%)
Liabilities: in the most recent year (2004), the main components were: accounts payable & accrued expenses (86%) capital lease obligation (14%)
The figure for wages/benefits is the amount across all 3 categories (program, administrative and fundraising) as a percent of total expenses. Likewise for professional/consulting/contract fees.
Professional fundraising fees averaged $13,047 for the three years.

Revenue was almost entirely (close to 100%) from private individuals, companies, foundations. We will ask for a breakdown into those three components.

The Rainforest Action Network did not give a breakdown of program spending by program in its latest IRS Form 990, however, RAN told us that relative expenditures for its three current campaigns are approximately: Old Growth Campaign (40%); Global Finance Campaign (30%); and Jumpstart Ford Campaign (30%).

Compensation for senior staff was modest: Mike Brune, Executive Director: $53,560; Christopher Hatch, former Executive Director: $36,404; and Randall Hayes, President & Secretary (22 hours/week): $32,500.

Sources of revenue in 2003 were: "major gifts" and foundation grants: 39%; grants 29%; public and member support 23%; fundraising events 9%.

Fundraising methods include: membership appeals, direct mail, telemarketing, special events, planned giving, and Internet appeals (source: www.give.org).

[further info pending]

There is a very good article ("Mosquito in the Tent") by Marc Gunther in the May 18, 2004 edition of Fortune magazine that describes how RAN applies pressure to big business and explains why it gets results, despite its small size. The article also puts into perspective criticisms of RAN as well as the organization's own "exaggerated" claims.

Critics argue that tactics used by RAN have included trespassing, intimidation and vandalism. RAN acknowledges taking part in some unlawful activities but views this as justified civil disobedience. RAN staff members protested the WTO meeting in Seattle in late 1999, including organizing and participating in non-violent demonstrations. RAN insists its participation in the Seattle protests was non-violent. Nevertheless, RAN has been linked by some to the intermittent street violence that punctuated the Seattle protests.

An article on the Free Republic website (an "online gathering place for independent, grass-roots conservatism") makes a shrill denunciation of Randall Hayes based on his radical ideas on globalization, world governance, and international financial institutions and his association with other critics of the econonic status quo and globalization trends. (Extreme) environmental skeptic Alan Caruba expresses a similar, alarmist view of Randall Hayes on his website. But so what? Surely, we should judge NGOs by their actions and not on the ideas of their executive staff.

[This section awaits the accumulation of input from visitors to the greendonor site.]