Think Small
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 411260581
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Saint Paul, MN, USA
- Phone
- 651-641-3549
- Rating
- 89
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Child Day Care
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $20,729,232
- Expenses
- $22,246,980
- Assets
- $8,749,664
- Liabilities
- $2,769,579
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
23 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Cisa Keller (President and CEO)
- Barbara Yates (President and CEO until March 2024)
Highest reported compensation
- Cisa Keller (President and CEO): $217,557 total reported compensation
- Jonathan May (VP of Innovation & Development): $142,614 total reported compensation
- Barbara Yates (President and CEO until March 2024): $124,592 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Empower every educator. Champion early learners.
What it reported doing in 2024
Strengthen FamiliesThink Small recognizes that supporting families is critical to supporting their children's early learning and education. We administered 4,700+ Early Learning Scholarships whereby 57% served children priority groups, living in homelessness, foster care, with teen parents, and other unique or challenging circumstances. Through the free statewide program ParentPowered Texts, 3,100 caregivers received texts, three times weekly, related to their child's development for children ages 0-5. More than 819,000 curricular messages were delivered to participating caregivers.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 80% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 50% for direct work, and 50% for grants.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 94
- Transparency & Controls: 85
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 20
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 91.4%; rating input score 91
- Fundraising efficiency: $46.23 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 93.8%; rating input score 94; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- 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: 98.7%; rating input score 99; 30th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th 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: -7.3%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.39; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.32; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 5.1%; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 1.7% per year; rating input score 100; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 5.2% per year; rating input score 100; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 0.2% per year; rating input score 100; 11th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 5 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 91.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 14 of 14 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $20.3M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $218K · 23 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 3 contractors listed · $627K reported
- Consistency: 38 of 39 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 144 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 135 filed related-organization links
- 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 — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 13/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 11/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 44/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 50/100.