Creating the Future

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
273698981
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2012–2025
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2025
Location
Tucson, AZ, USA
Phone
5203497061
Rating
64
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Management & Technical Assistance

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$59,115
Expenses
$82,782
Assets
$2,778
Liabilities
$6,220

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

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • HILDY GOTTLIEB (PRESIDENT)

People named in this filing

  • HILDY GOTTLIEB (PRESIDENT)
  • DIMITRI PETROPOLIS (VICE PRESIDE)
  • ANGIE EIKENBERRY (DIRECTOR)

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

To show people how to change the systems they find themselves in, to aim those systems at bringing out the best in people, all by changing the questions they ask.

What it reported doing in 2025

Education programs: in 2025, the focus of all our efforts was on supporting changemakers who are struggling with the new reality. To that end, we ramped up all our education efforts. We produced 14 podcast episodes focused on the question, "what actually creates social change?" we continued to develop new classes, designing webinars to assist our community members in their own change efforts. Our biweekly newsletter became a weekly newsletter, again to support our community. We continued to facilitate a robust community of practice for practitioners applying catalytic thinking in their lives and their work. In 2025 we also increased our public speaking efforts, keynoting and teaching workshops from New York to Alaska to new zealand and australia. And we more aggressively pursued writing for publications with broad reach, including stanford social innovation review and nonprofit quarterly as well as academic journals and publications. See https://creatingthefuture.org/2025-accomplishments/ for details.

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. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 46
  • Transparency & Controls: 100
  • Sustainability: 10
  • Growth: 20

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 51.9%; rating input score 52
  • Program expense ratio: 37%; rating input score 37

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: -40%; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.03; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 2.24; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 39.7%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -15.5% per year; rating input score 0; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -1.8% per year; rating input score 0; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 7.5% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 51.9% of revenue deployed · 37% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 2 filed program accomplishments · $31K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 8 people listed
  • Consistency: 7 of 7 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 14 filing years from 2012 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 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 52/100.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 37/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 14/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 9/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 2/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 5/100.