Skysthelimit Org

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
274333255
IRS 990 coverage
2017–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2016, Form 990-N 2014
Location
Seattle, WA, USA
Phone
5103798952
Rating
70
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
International Economic Development

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,033,289
Expenses
$1,420,557
Assets
$4,581,543
Liabilities
$37,814

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

Leadership & pay

21 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • WILLIAM BO GHIRARDELLI (CEO, PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • WILLIAM BO GHIRARDELLI (CEO, PRESIDENT): $163,094 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

To connect underrepresented young adult entrepreneurs with one-on-one support, including from volunteer business mentors, as well as provide tailored entrepreneurship training and business funding opportunities.

What it reported doing in 2025

Our integrated core program connects underrepresented young entrepreneurs with training, funding, and a community of their peers & volunteer professionals on our skysthelimit.org digital platform. Our entrepreneurs are between the ages of 18 and 29 and are members of underrepresented groups, primarily low-income, people of color, and/or women. Our volunteer mentors are professionals from leading corporations as well as owners and operators from the small business community. Our team leverages our platform to recruit, screen, train, match, evaluate, and support young entrepreneurs and volunteer business advisors & mentors at scale. Our innovative startup grant program awards small grants to young entrepreneurs for their business launch expenses.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 95% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 92% 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 most voting board members are independent. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and the filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 70
  • Transparency & Controls: 53
  • Accountability: 89
  • Sustainability: 73
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 60.6%; rating input score 61
  • Program expense ratio: 84.1%; rating input score 84
  • Fundraising efficiency: $33.65 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 85.7%; rating input score 86; 2nd 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: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Missing
  • Foreign activity oversight: 2 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 25
    • Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
    • Requires narrative reports: Pass
    • Conducts field audits: Fail
    • May suspend future funding: Fail
    • Requires financial reports: Fail
    • Conducts site visits: Fail
    • Requires grant agreements: Fail
    • May require repayment: Fail
  • Grant itemization coverage: 40.2%; rating input score 40; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 90.5%; rating input score 90; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
    • 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: Fail
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 30.1%; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.23; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 11.5%; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 16% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 19.3% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 26.3% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 60.6% of revenue deployed · 84.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 19 of 21 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.2M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $163K · 21 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 3 contractors listed · $306K reported
  • Consistency: 26 of 28 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 8 filing years from 2017 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 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.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight: 6 of 8 not reported.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 40/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Audit committee oversight not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 29/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Foreign grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.