Bright Horizons Foundation for Children

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
621782263
IRS 990 coverage
2014–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Newton, MA, USA
Phone
6176586097
Rating
59
Verdict
MIXED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Private Independent Foundations

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$708,196
Expenses
$498,247
Assets
$1,777,312
Liabilities
$37,471

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

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • YVONNE LYNCH (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • YVONNE LYNCH (PRESIDENT): $471,877 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

The bright horizons foundation for children is focused on brightening the lives of children, youth, and families in crisis. We support a range of programs that serve children, families, and nonprofit agencies through volunteers, grants, and resources. Our signature program, bright spaces, creates and supports play areas that brighten the lives of homeless children and families in crisis, and serves more than 130,000 homeless children each year.

What it reported doing in 2025

Since 1999, we have opened more than 300 bright spaces that today serve more than 130,000 children annually. These bright spaces provide unique hubs of activity for children to play, gather with families, and receive the services they need in homeless shelters and other community agencies. The foundation also fosters employee volunteerism through brightening lives activity grants and gleason volunteer grants. Annually, thousands of volunteers perform valuable community service in bright spaces and other nonprofit agencies across the us.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 92% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Grant intermediary. The nonprofit sent 88% of its reported program spending out as grants.

The verdict

MIXED - A large share of total spending goes to programs and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and a relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 66
  • Transparency & Controls: 66
  • Accountability: 42
  • Sustainability: 73
  • Growth: 20

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 58.4%; rating input score 58
  • Program expense ratio: 78.6%; rating input score 79
  • Fundraising efficiency: $31.84 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 24th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Missing
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 84.7%; rating input score 85; 40th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 0%; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 29.6%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.57; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 4%; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -7.7% per year; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -7.9% per year; rating input score 0; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 4% per year; rating input score 100; 31st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 58.4% of revenue deployed · 78.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 0 of 5 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $392K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $472K · 5 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 23 of 24 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 12 filing years from 2014 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 12 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 11 filed related-organization links
  • 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 — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 0/100.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 58/100.
  • High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 53/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 52/100.