Trash the Runway
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 832674488
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2023–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2022
- Location
- Boulder, CO, USA
- Phone
- 2144373335
- Rating
- 92
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Arts Education
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $105,467
- Expenses
- $97,560
- Assets
- $63,068
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
4 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Catherine Winsten (Board President)
- Rebecca Cole (Board Vice President)
People named in this filing
- Catherine Winsten (Board President)
- Rebecca Cole (Board Vice President)
- Beth Armstrong (Board Member)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Trash the Runway puts young people in the role of artists, creators, and changemakers, turning what others see as waste into something beautiful and unexpected. We challenge middle and high school students to transform discarded materials into extraordinary works of wearable art-and now, to use documentary storytelling to bring their ideas and perspectives to life. In the process, they build confidence, resilience, creativity, and critical-thinking skills while discovering the power of their own voices. Their work inspires the community to rethink waste, embrace possibility, and imagine what can happen when young people are empowered to think big, create boldly, and drive change. We turn waste into wonder-but more importantly, we turn possibility into action. We also have an elementary school program for our up-and-coming designers who are not old enough to participate in the full program.
What it reported doing in 2025
February 2026 Show - the culmination of 3 months of workshops participated in by 54 students, incl 22 elementary age, 15 middle school, and 17 high school students. The workshops incl creating the students' garments, participating in extra workshops such as "strength under stress" held by a youth therapist, a "stage presence" workshop hosted by Boulder Ballet and BETC, and "Storytelling through shape, colors & textures". The show is witnessed in person by an in-person audience 1,100 plus YouTube views. Our goal is to build a community of designers, artists, mentors, volunteers and audience who are invested in turning waste into wonder, stories into power, and imagination into change. Our program unlocks the resilience, confidence, and ingenuity to ensure our next general, and the broader community, are inspired to think big, be empowered and act boldly to drive change.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 95% 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. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 91
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 39
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 88%; rating input score 88
- Program expense ratio: 95.1%; rating input score 95
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 7.5%; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.65; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 18.6%; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 51.7% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 19.3% per year; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 17.8% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 88% of revenue deployed · 95.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $93K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 4 people listed
- Consistency: 7 of 7 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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 — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 50/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 45/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 18/100.