On Being Project

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
462775553
IRS 990 coverage
2013–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2020
Location
Saint Paul, MN, USA
Phone
6125843862
Rating
80
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Telecommunications

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,533,183
Expenses
$2,598,709
Assets
$2,739,588
Liabilities
$52,246

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

Leadership & pay

7 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • KRISTA TIPPETT (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • KRISTA TIPPETT (PRESIDENT): $372,876 total reported compensation
  • CHRISTOPHER HEAGLE (FORMER SENIOR PRODUCER): $134,467 total reported compensation
  • LAUREN DROMMERHAUSEN (FORMER SR. OPS MANAGER): $123,003 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

The on being project is a nonprofit media and social healing organization. Our mission is to pursue deep thinking and moral imagination, social creativity and joy, towards the renewal of inner life, outer life, and life together. We produce the award-winning global podcast "on being" with krista tippett, and an ecosystem of offerings across content, convenings, and tools/resources that nourish and amplify the generative narrative of our time. People engage with on being to explore the great questions of meaning as they are newly and urgently alive in 21st century life: what does it mean to be human? How do we want to live? Who will we be to each other?

What it reported doing in 2024

In fiscal year 2025, the on being project's work continued to focus on developing an ecosystem of offerings and serving our far-flung global web of listeners/practitioners. The people who gather around on being are part of the generative narrative of our time. In all kinds of lives, in all kinds of places, they are healers and social creatives. At human pace, they are enlivening the world that they can see and touch. In generational time, they are stitching relationship across rupture. On being's conversations on-air and off create opening. In a political and cultural space that rewards fear, ferments argument, and hastens closure, on being nourishes learning and growth, newness, and evolution.

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 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

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 71
  • Transparency & Controls: 84
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 33
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 72.7%; rating input score 73
  • Program expense ratio: 70.8%; rating input score 71
  • Fundraising efficiency: $19.88 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Pass
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 9 of 9 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: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -2.6%; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.05; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 28.4%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 8.1% per year; rating input score 100; 56th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 1.7% per year; rating input score 100; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 6.1% per year; rating input score 100; 41st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 72.7% of revenue deployed · 70.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 3 of 3 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $1.8M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $373K · 7 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 3 contractors listed · $433K reported
  • Consistency: 24 of 24 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 11 filing years from 2013 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 4 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: Fundraising efficiency scored 59/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 25/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 39/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 6/100.