Bright Saver Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 332359862
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2025–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2024
- Location
- Palo Alto, CA, USA
- Phone
- 5743129730
- Rating
- 72
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Environmental Quality, Protection, and Beautification N.E.C.
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $656,493
- Expenses
- $395,466
- Assets
- $710,015
- Liabilities
- $448,887
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Kevin Chou (President)
Highest reported compensation
- Cora Stryker (Program Director): $93,896 total reported compensation
- Rupert Mayer (Treasurer-Secretary): $60,395 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Bright Saver Inc. is a new nonprofit organization with the mission to protect the environment educate the public and mitigate threats to human health from climate change and unsustainable energy consumption. It achieves this mission through public education about the benefits of clean energy and programs intended to make solar energy accessible nationwide regardless of income. Solar power and particularly rooftop solar is a key aspect in climate action plans at all levels in the governmental and private sectors. However currently only 5-7 percent of households have installed rooftop solar and such systems belong predominantly to higher income high credit-scoring homeowners. This paltry percentage results from the high cost of systems and their installation requiring financing for most homeowners. In addition more than one-third of households in the United States rent their dwelling with a vastly disproportionate number being continued in Schedule O
What it reported doing in 2025
Education Policy Development and Research: Serve as the go-to national resource on plug-in solar for communities and partners driving broad public awareness needed to make plug-in solar an aspirational mainstream technology for every household. Provide research and expertise to support state-by-state policy frameworks.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 92% 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 available resources goes toward mission work. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 65
- Transparency & Controls: 94
- Accountability: 60
- Sustainability: 60
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 61.9%; rating input score 62
- Program expense ratio: 79.3%; rating input score 79
- Fundraising efficiency: $10.58 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 66.7%; rating input score 67; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- 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: Fail
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 39.8%; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.8; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.63; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 39%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: 199.9% per year; rating input score 100; 100th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 199.9% per year; rating input score 100; 100th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 61.9% of revenue deployed · 79.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 2 of 3 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $314K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $94K · 5 people listed
- Consistency: 42 of 42 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 1 filing year from 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 5 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
- 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: 3 of 7 not reported.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 37/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 4/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 9/100.