Fairplay

Legal name: Fairplay Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
271790210
IRS 990 coverage
2023–2024
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Boston, MA, USA
Phone
(617) 896-9368
Rating
78
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Standard
Sector
Alliance/Advocacy

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$4,366,654
Expenses
$2,773,779
Assets
$2,737,244
Liabilities
$228,956

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

14 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • CRISCILLIA BENFORD PHD (PRESIDENT)
  • DANIELLE ORISTIAN YORK (VICE PRESIDENT)
  • JOSH GOLIN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • JOSH GOLIN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $227,199 total reported compensation
  • HALEY HINKLE (POLICY COUNSEL): $116,080 total reported compensation
  • AMY HENDERSHOT (DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS): $112,309 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

For over 25 years, Fairplay has been the leading voice fighting to enhance children’s well-being by eliminating the exploitative and harmful business practices of marketers and Big Tech.

What it reported doing in 2024

Fairplay's "young children thrive offline" works to eliminate the harmful and exploitative business practices of big tech and marketers that impact young children. Activities include narrative change work, public awareness and corporate accountability campaigns, and coalition-building.after establishing policies, procedures, and staffing the program, fairplay's young children thrive offline program conducted research and published a white paper, "hooked from birth: promoting structural change and avoiding parental shame in the battle to reduce early childhood screen time," along with a messaging guide for partners. The program disseminated this new narrative framework through trainings, conference presentations, and meetings with partners. To address harmful business practices impacting young children, fairplay called out google for opening its gemini ai chatbot to young children under 13, including filing a ftc complaint and letter to google's ceo. Additional campaigns were developed for implementation in fy26. The program also convened cross-sector experts through roundtable events and led new initiatives within fairplay's screen time action network early childhood workgroup.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 99% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 93% 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 - A large share of total spending goes to programs and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 64
  • Transparency & Controls: 80
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 61
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 53.3%; rating input score 53
  • Program expense ratio: 83.4%; rating input score 83
  • Fundraising efficiency: $22.83 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 36.5%; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.99; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.08; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 16.4%; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 44.8% per year; rating input score 100; 96th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 46% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 83.2% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 7 programs and campaigns described on the official site
  • Where the money goes: 53.3% of revenue deployed · 83.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $2.3M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $227K · 14 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 38 of 38 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 9 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, executive pay, and related organizations
  • Filing history: 2 filing years from 2023 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 5 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 3 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.

  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 53/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 36/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 16/100.