Halfthestory

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
825231180
IRS 990 coverage
2021–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2020
Location
Western Springs, IL, USA
Phone
7083633981
Rating
78
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Mental Health Treatment F31 Psychiatric, Mental Health Hospital

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,623,592
Expenses
$2,543,726
Assets
$1,382,392
Liabilities
$50,748

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

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • LARISSA MAY (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • LARISSA MAY (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $200,000 total reported compensation
  • LAUREN SMITS (CHIEF OF STAFF): $153,700 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

#halfthestory's mission is to empower the next generation's relationship with social media through advocacy, education, and providing access to resources for youth. We believe in digital wellbeing.

What it reported doing in 2025

Through our advocacy, education, and research programs we have been able to reach a wide audience with our mission of improving digital wellbeing. We have launched social media u, an educational program that has reached over 2,500 teens to empower them to develop healthy relationships with technology. From this program, we also hosted focus groups with teens of all backgrounds to help better understand their challenges. We launched story squad, which is a resident group of teen creators to create content for our channel. We also host an annual global day of unplugging, an advocacy holiday that celebrates a 24-hour period of collective presences and reflection. This holiday is observed with youth, schools, community organizations, and influencers around the world and has a reach of over 50,000,000 users, 50,000 pledges, 60 influencers, and 20 brands and NGO partners in 10 countries

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 98% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 88% 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 available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 77
  • Transparency & Controls: 79
  • Accountability: 82
  • Sustainability: 33
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 76.7%; rating input score 77
  • Program expense ratio: 78.8%; rating input score 79
  • Fundraising efficiency: $38.11 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • 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; 75th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 5 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 56
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 3%; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.54; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 13.9%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 62.9% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 53.2% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 53.6% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 76.7% of revenue deployed · 78.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 3 of 3 board members independent · 5 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $2M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $200K · 5 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 2 contractors listed · $301K reported
  • Consistency: 30 of 30 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2021 to 2025
  • 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 9 not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 37/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 18/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 24/100.