Design Bay Area
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 873400460
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2022–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2024, Form 990-N 2021
- Location
- San Francisco, CA, USA
- Phone
- 4156096220
- Rating
- 70
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Arts, Cultural Organizations - Multipurpose
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $252,444
- Expenses
- $261,560
- Assets
- $81,872
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
3 people listed
People named in this filing
- Dawn Zidonis (Secretary)
- Alana Washington (Chair)
- Clement Mok (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. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The specific purposes of this Corporation include, in all areas of design: sharing design history, expertise, information and resources while creating opportunities through regional, state and citywide events; fostering conversations, education and partnerships and collaborations that benefit society and members of the general public by utilizing the power of design; and fostering economic opportunity through supporting diversity of participants in the design fields, amplifying the voices of California designers and of those in adjacent fields, and by educating the design-savvy public by making resources and information available to them on a not-for-profit basis.
What it reported doing in 2025
San Francisco Design Week (7 days of events)
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 60% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- 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 and most voting board members are independent. 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: 50
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 82
- Sustainability: 35
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 44.7%; rating input score 45
- Program expense ratio: 43.1%; rating input score 43
- Fundraising efficiency: $502.85 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 95; 95th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 57
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- 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: -3.6%; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.31; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 57.1% per year; rating input score 100; 96th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 3.7% per year; rating input score 100; 40th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -38.3% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 44.7% of revenue deployed · 43.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 3 of 3 board members independent · 4 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $113K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 3 people listed
- Consistency: 20 of 20 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 2 filing years from 2022 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 45/100.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 43/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 6 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 28/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 17/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.