Berklee
Overview
Mission
Berklee provides the highest-quality educational experience in music, dance, and theater to prepare students to fully realize their creative and career potential, and to promote the power of the arts to better our world. Unified Vision Berklee is building the future of arts education—borderless in its availability and influence, pioneering in its embrace of innovation, and committed to empowering artists and creative leaders for lives of inspiration and impact. Berklee has grown to include a diverse set of learning environments, each contributing uniquely to our mission and vision. These varied settings foster innovation, creativity, and a comprehensive educational experience, ensuring our students are well-prepared for the evolving demands of the music and arts industries.
What it reported doing in 2024
Education and instruction: the program is provided to develop the skills and knowledge of students seeking degrees in music, theater, and dance. The college provides outstanding faculty and teaching facilities for over 8,369 students from the us and 134 foreign countries. The college also offers a new way for artists around the world to join the global music community-as performers, as practitioners, and as leaders with the college's first international campus in valencia.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 94% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 67% for direct work, and 33% for grants.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 042300472
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Website reviewed
- Jul 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Headquarters
- Boston, MA, USA
- Rating
- 76
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Universities
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 76
- Transparency & Controls: 69
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 43
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 81.4%; rating input score 81
- Program expense ratio: 81.6%; rating input score 82
- Fundraising efficiency: $7.36 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 94.7%; rating input score 95; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 5 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 83
- Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100
- Public monitoring controls: 0 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Public policy transparency: 1 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 14
- Public financial transparency: 0 of 5 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Impact reporting controls: 0 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Public relationship transparency: Yes; rating input score 100
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 97%; rating input score 97; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Public governance controls: 1 of 4 controls in place; rating input score 25
- Zakat policy transparency: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -0.9%; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Operating reserve ratio: 2.13; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.4; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 1.2%; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 5.7% per year; rating input score 100; 47th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 5.4% per year; rating input score 100; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 5.1% per year; rating input score 100; 38th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 4 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 81.4% of revenue deployed · 81.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 32 of 33 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $379.3M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $1.3M · 52 people listed · 5 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 42 of 43 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 12 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, executive pay, and related organizations
- Filing history: 16 annual filings from 2009 to 2024
- Money network: 11 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 3 filed related-organization links