Big Thought
Public records show a registered, tax-exempt organization in good standing.
Points to look into
- 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
The mission of Big Thought is to make imagination a part of everyday learning. We bring relentless optimism, innovation, and imagination to the biggest problem facing education today: the opportunity gap.
- Income
- $9.6 million
- Spending
- $12.6 million
- Spent on programs
- 84%
- Reserves
- -1.8 months of spending
- Largest source of income
- donations and private grants, 56%
- Employees
- 223
- Volunteers
- 50
- Highest pay
- $200,166, president & ceo
Source: Form 990 for the year ending June 30, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Financial health
Weak: 20 out of 100. Higher than 1% of charities in its peer group (arts and culture, $1m to $10m).
Reserves
0 of 35Spendable reserves are negative: it owes or has committed more than it holds.
Debt
0 of 20It owes 136% of what it owns.
Living within its means
0 of 15Spending exceeded income by 31% of income.
Income trend
5 of 15Income fell 24% on the year before.
Spending floor
15 of 1584% of spending went to programs and raising each dollar of donations cost 7 cents.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending June 30, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Governance
Strong: 100 out of 100. Higher than 65% of charities in its peer group (arts and culture, $1m to $10m).
Independent board
25 of 2520 of 20 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 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 (1)
- $10.6 million spent. At Big Thought, we believe that all youth have innate greatness. Our North Star is that all youth are equipped to imagine and create their best lives and world. Driven by our mission to make imagination a part of everyday learning, Big Thought is a social impact enterprise that focuses on youth development by preparing young creators with the skills and resources they need for the 21st century workplace. We exist to empower and equip youth to Create Great we're creating creators. At Big Thought, we provide the space and agency to support young creators through our programs and partnerships, which are powered by our dedicated research and development team that enables us to design high quality evidence-based programs, measure our impact, and expand our reach.Throughout our 30+ year history of innovation, Big Thought has become an award-winning national model in arts education, out of school time systems, summer learning and juvenile justice intervention. Now, we're one of six community partnerships in the U.S. helping scale national best practices in social and emotional learning.At our core, we empower youth to build their creative muscle, develop social and emotional skills and wellbeing and create their authentic voice.Big Thought implements three approaches to deliver this work:1. Direct to youth programs. We develop and deliver high quality curriculum and programs to serve communities with the greatest need. Big Thought programs reach on average over 4,000 students for more than 443,000 learning hours annually.2. Learning Systems - We do this by strategically connecting partners and resources across the city to create learning systems that address these themes. Big Thought Learning Systems reach on average over 20,000 students for more than 2.1 million learning hours annually.3. Powered by Big Thought, Big Thought Institute (BTI) - is an innovative partner that enables organizations to expand their capacity to build creativity, develop 21st Century skills, and deliver unique learning experiences. BTI provides professional learning, consulting, design and research-based services to empower our clients to effectively teach, develop and create. We leverage evidence-based best practices in creativity and learning systems that have been established over 30 years. BTIs client services impact adults who impact youth, engaging with an average of 10,000+ adults and having an indirect impact on hundreds of thousands of youth.How we implement these programs is what makes us uniquely effective. The Big Thought team and partners are able to achieve success in our community through our social and emotional focus, experiential learning, community-centered partnerships, equity lens and future focus.Big Thoughts unique approach comes alive in the following implementations: Weve positioned youth as equal partners in geographic/local expansion of Big Thought direct-to-youth programs so that these systems are more effective, and programs are established with a racial equity lens. We raise awareness of creativity as a workplace skill and advocate to embed creativity in human capital development institutions. We scale best practices to key institutions and systems through consulting, technical assistance, professional development and curriculum design while enabling youth to directly share their stories and perspectives with decision-makers.
Source: Form 990 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 July 1987.
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.