Black Girls Dance

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
821437264
IRS 990 coverage
2023–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2022
Location
Chicago, IL, USA
Phone
8479050627
Rating
72
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Arts Education

Reported finances

Revenue
$612,078
Expenses
$398,678
Assets
$386,999
Liabilities
$26,563

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

6 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Halil Hampton (Vice President)
  • Kenneth Gilkes Jr (President)

Highest reported compensation

  • ERIN BARNETT (Executive Dir.): $94,053 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

At Black Girls Dance, our unwavering commitment is to champion and elevate dancers of color by providing a transformative journey that encompasses training, exposure, and performance opportunities. Rooted in the belief that dance is not only an art form but a powerful avenue for personal growth and empowerment, our mission transcends the stage to impact lives and communities.

What it reported doing in 2025

Dance Season Provided high-quality ballet, jazz, contemporary, and hip-hop training to over 180 students, fostering confidence, discipline, and artistry. In 2025, Black Girls Dance continued providing high-quality dance training, performance opportunities, mentorship, and confidence-building experiences for girls of color. Program accomplishments included serving over 200 students, offering weekly dance instruction across multiple disciplines, producing major performance opportunities, providing scholarship support, and continuing the organizations expansion toward the future Full Circle Performing Arts Center.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
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

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of total spending goes to programs. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 60
  • Transparency & Controls: 86
  • Accountability: 74
  • Sustainability: 58
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 50.7%; rating input score 51
  • Program expense ratio: 77.8%; rating input score 78
  • Fundraising efficiency: $16.78 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 34.9%; rating input score 85; 85th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.97; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.07; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 23.6%; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 28.5% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 42.3% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 57.3% per year; rating input score 100; 96th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 50.7% of revenue deployed · 77.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 3 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $310K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $94K · 6 people listed
  • Consistency: 27 of 28 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
  • 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.

  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 51/100.
  • Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 7 not reported.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 50/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 42/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 12/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 39/100.