Bright Scholars International
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 824670316
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2023–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2019
- Location
- Kirkland, WA, USA
- Phone
- 2066977043
- Rating
- 93
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- International Relief
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $73,724
- Expenses
- $83,112
- Assets
- $91,420
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
3 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Zulkiffly Sa (President and Executive Director)
People named in this filing
- Zulkiffly Sa (President and Executive Director)
- Kevin Kho (Secretary)
- Devin Bo (Treasurer)
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
Bright Scholars International seeks to give hope and break generational poverty by advocating for students' futures through educational subsidies and personal relationships.
What it reported doing in 2025
Bright Scholars International's program has three parts - (1) Student Sponsorship, (2) Sponsors for Students, and (3) Board and Sponsor Home Visitations. BSI's programs seek to break generational poverty by advocating for students' futures through educational subsidies and personal relationships. Bright Scholars International also provides connections between sponsors and students and their families. BSI provides sponsors the opportunity to visit their students and families to build personal relationships and for sponsors to understand what the students and families are fully going through. Our goal is, not only to fund their education but to provide the support they need to persevere through their difficulties and have a bright future as scholars in this world. This connection increases donations and commitment from the sponsoring individuals to continue BSI's mission of funding students through their entire education.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 55% for direct work, and 45% for grants.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Revenue has declined or grown slowly and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 97
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 42
- Growth: 40
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 93%; rating input score 93
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -12.7%; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.1; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 28.9% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -42.5% per year; rating input score 0; 7th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -24.1% per year; rating input score 0; 9th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 93% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $77K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 3 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- 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 — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 27/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 50/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.