Big Apple Leadership Academy for the Arts Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 842688048
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2022–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2021, Form 990-EZ 2025
- Location
- Brooklyn, NY, USA
- Phone
- 9298237732
- Rating
- 47
- Verdict
- MIXED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Youth Development Programs
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $115,500
- Expenses
- $115,100
- Assets
- $1,721
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
1 person listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Mahli Mathias (Deputy Executive Director)
People named in this filing
- Mahli Mathias (Deputy Executive Director)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The primary exempt purpose of Big Apple Leadership Academy for the Arts is to provide youth arts education cultural enrichment and leadership development through highquality dance and music programming performance opportunities and exposure to postsecondary and professional pathways in the arts The organization focuses on expanding access to arts education and educational opportunities for Black and underserved communities by supporting artistic excellence discipline and career readiness
What it reported doing in 2025
The organization provides youth arts education leadership development and access to postsecondary and professional performing arts opportunities with a focus on serving Black and underserved communities Core programming includes dance and music instruction cultural enrichment performances uniforms and careerreadiness support for student artists During the reporting period the organization hosted and coordinated a largescale audition fair designed to expand access to higher education and advanced training opportunities in the performing arts The audition fair convened 17 visiting Historically Black College and University HBCU band directors and arts educators to evaluate and mentor participating students In support of this program the organization received a 25000 grant designated for the audition fair Program expenses included approximately 15000 for roundtrip airfare hotel accommodations ground transportation and meals for the visiting HBCU band directors ensuring equitable access and highquality engagement for student participants As a result of the organizations audition fair and related programming participating students collectively received over 39 million in cumulative scholarship offers in 2026 significantly expanding access to postsecondary education and advanced arts training The program served more than 100 youth participants and contributed to increased educational opportunity artistic advancement and longterm leadership development outcomes
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 77% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 21
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 33
- Growth: 40
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 20.8%; rating input score 21
- Program expense ratio: 20.9%; rating input score 21
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 0.3%; rating input score 32; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.01; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 120% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -25.5% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -64.1% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 20.8% of revenue deployed · 20.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 2 filed program accomplishments · $24K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 1 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 21/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 21/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 32/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 5/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.