Public Goods Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
332501560
IRS 990 coverage
2025–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2024
Location
San Francisco, CA, USA
Phone
6502752514
Rating
61
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Philanthropy, Voluntarism, and Grantmaking Foundations N.E.C.

Reported finances

Revenue
$333,104
Expenses
$59,957
Assets
$271,940
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

3 people listed

People named in this filing

  • Raymond Cheng (Director)
  • David Casey (Director)
  • Evan Miyazono (Director)

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

To support and advance the common business interests of individuals, organizations, and projects within the open-source and public goods sectors by fostering collaboration, promoting industry standards, and enabling sustainable financial practices.

What it reported doing in 2025

During the tax year, the Public Goods Foundation furthered its mission by serving as a critical financial and administrative bridge for emerging open-source initiatives. Specifically, the Foundation provided fiscal sponsorship and oversight for a key project being incubated by one of our primary donors. By leveraging our registered non-profit status and governance framework, we enabled this organization to secure a significant grant from a major Foundation. Our involvement provided the necessary institutional trust and compliance infrastructure to facilitate this income, directly supporting the project's growth and advancing sustainable financial practices within the public goods sector.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 100% 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

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 some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 30
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 70
  • Sustainability: 86
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 12.5%; rating input score 12
  • Program expense ratio: 69.3%; rating input score 69
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

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: 2 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 29
    • 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: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 82%; rating input score 98; 98th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.54; rating input score 78; 78th 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: Limited
  • Revenue growth: 147.8% per year; rating input score 100; 100th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 137.9% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 12.5% of revenue deployed · 69.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 3 of 3 board members independent · 2 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $42K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 3 people listed
  • Consistency: 14 of 14 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 6 not reported.