The Great Questions Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
843656041
IRS 990 coverage
2023–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2022, Form 990-N 2020
Location
Austin, TX, USA
Phone
7373504302
Rating
86
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Community or Junior Colleges

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$104,335
Expenses
$414,944
Assets
$811,144
Liabilities
$1,493

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

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • THEODORE HADZI-ANTICH JR (PRESIDENT/EXECUTIVE DIRECT)
  • EMILY LANGSTON (VICE PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • THEODORE HADZI-ANTICH JR (PRESIDENT/EXECUTIVE DIRECT): $18,000 total reported compensation
  • GRANT POTTS (TREASURER): $10,800 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 great questions foundation seeks to promote liberal education and core-text and discussion-based learning at the community college through supporting faculty developement, course redesign, and helping to establish and support core-text programs and courses.

What it reported doing in 2024

To date, tgqf has helped over 230 faculty members at more than 70 community colleges redesign courses to focus on the discussion-based study of transformative texts and ideas in their general education course work, impacting over 65,000 students. Tgqf completed an impact study of faculty who have participated in our programs. On average, each faculty member teaches 240 students per year and reports applying skills gained through tgqf, such as whole-text reading approaches and discussion leadership techniques, in approximately 70% of their courses. Faculty from our inaugural 2022 cohort report sustained use of these practices today. Tgqf's investment in a single community college faculty member reaches thousands of students over the course of a career.tgqf continues to offer its online curriculum redesign workshops, focused on helping faculty members incorporate the discussion-based study of transformative texts into general education courses they teach at community colleges. About 50 community college faculty members have completed tgqf online workshops during this period, impacting about 8,000 students. In each workshop, 10 community college faculty members collaborate with two experienced faculty leaders to develop discussion-based pedagogy, student-centered study questions, assignments, and a redesigned syllabus for a general education course they teach at their home institution. Upon completion of the workshop, faculty participants incorporate the discussion-based study of one or more of the texts into the curriculum of a general education course they teach. The redesigned courses have been highly successful in enhancing student engagement, stimulating intellectual curiosity, encouraging diverse perspectives, and creating an inclusive environment for free expression. Find out more here: https://www.tgqf.org/workshops/

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 90% 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: 88
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 86
  • Sustainability: 28
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 84.7%; rating input score 85
  • Fundraising efficiency: $9.55 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings

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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 6 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 67
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • 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: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -297.7%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.95; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 6.9%; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 151.2% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 6% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 55.7% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 84.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 6 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $351K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $18K · 8 people listed
  • Consistency: 24 of 24 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 2 filing years from 2023 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 5 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.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 38/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 1/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 58/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 31/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 54/100.