Moonshot Initiative

Legal name: Moonshot Initiative INC

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
933333594
IRS 990 coverage
2025–2025
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2024, Form 990-N 2023
Location
Kingston, NY, USA
Phone
9174327365
Rating
48
Verdict
MIXED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Arts, Cultural Organizations - Multipurpose

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$174,960
Expenses
$190,259
Assets
$1,761
Liabilities
$9,939

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

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • TRACI HAYS (President)

People named in this filing

  • TRACI HAYS (President)
  • AISHA BESSON (Treasurer)
  • CHRISTINA RAIA (Secretary)

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

Moonshot Initiative provides career-building programs for women and gender-expansive creators — from weekend film challenges to pitch meetings with HBO, Netflix, and more.

What it reported doing in 2025

Moonshot Film Challenge is a flagship program that places women and gender-expansive filmmakers on professional production crews to write, shoot, and edit a short film in 78 hours. Participants receive access to over $1,000,000 in professional cinema equipment, full production insurance, hands-on technical training, and mentorship from industry professionals. Women and gender-expansive people fill every leadership role on each production, including director, producer, and cinematographer. The organization has supported the production of 41 short films, reaching over 1,200 filmmakers, with 150-plus festival acceptances. 99.4% of participants report they would hire or refer a fellow participant for future work.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 62% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
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.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

MIXED - 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: 21
  • Transparency & Controls: 83
  • Accountability: 58
  • Sustainability: 18
  • Growth: 40

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 11.7%; rating input score 12
  • Program expense ratio: 10.7%; rating input score 11
  • Fundraising efficiency: $529.84 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 95; 95th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 0 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Fail
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -8.7%; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.01; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 5.64; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: 14.1% per year; rating input score 100; 79th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -161.1% per year; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 4 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
  • Where the money goes: 11.7% of revenue deployed · 10.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 0 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $20K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 8 people listed
  • Consistency: 22 of 23 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 12/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 11/100.
  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 6 of 6 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 20/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 2/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 0/100.