Bravemaker
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 825102678
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2018
- Location
- Redwood City, CA, USA
- Phone
- 6507017661
- Rating
- 79
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Film, Video
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $550,641
- Expenses
- $497,953
- Assets
- $150,145
- Liabilities
- $7,357
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
4 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- ANTHONY GAPASTIONE (President)
Highest reported compensation
- ANTHONY GAPASTIONE (President): $132,000 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
BraveMaker exists to elevate brave voices. Through the curation and creation of bold, meaningful films, we educate, entertain, and build community experiences that spark transformative conversations rooted in diversity, inclusion, and social impact.
What it reported doing in 2025
Film Festival, Screenings and Community Engagement: BraveMaker hosts an annual film festival alongside monthly screenings, workshops, and community events designed to bring audiences together around essential conversations and lifes most meaningful questions. These programs advance our mission to elevate brave voices promoting justice, diversity, and inclusion.Complementing these in-person experiences, BraveMaker produces a weekly podcast that amplifies filmmakers and deepens audience engagement. The organization also curates a weekly Monday virtual support and professional development gathering for creators, fostering collaboration, mentorship, and creative sustainability.Additionally, BraveMaker organizes an annual donor and sponsor trip to the Sundance Film Festival, offering participants an immersive educational and networking experience within the independent film community.In 2025, BraveMaker presented 13 feature films through its festival and monthly screenings, along with 82 short films shown in person.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 70% 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 80
- Transparency & Controls: 86
- Accountability: 70
- Sustainability: 37
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 77.6%; rating input score 78
- Program expense ratio: 85.8%; rating input score 86
- Fundraising efficiency: $53.99 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 76; 76th 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: 75%; rating input score 75; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 9.6%; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.3; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 26.5%; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 14.7% per year; rating input score 100; 70th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 16% per year; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 14.2% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 77.6% of revenue deployed · 85.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 3 of 4 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $427K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $132K · 4 people listed
- Consistency: 23 of 24 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 15/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 55/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 10/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 43/100.