Michigan · Nonprofit
BRIGHTBEAM INC
BRIGHTBEAM INC (Michigan) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,454,470 to it, the largest being Walton Family Foundation Inc ($2,668,723). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $624k
- Funders on record
- 7
- Grants received
- $5.5M
- Net assets
- $704k
What Brightbeam Inc does
Mission
Brightbeam shines a light on those fighting for and providing a rich/high-quality/humane education for our nation's children and the barriers they face. Our mission is to inspire americans to demand safe, affirming, accountable education options where every child learns and thrives. Brightbeam's role is to inform and ignite this emerging movement for childhood thriving and educational opportunity through our platforms and with our partners. Through compelling digital content, brightbeam builds public understanding and support for our education issues and our partners, spotlights stories of great work in action, and moves citizens to use their influence on behalf of childhood thriving and educational opportunity. An important measure of our impact is our network, from individuals consuming our content to on-the-ground partners.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Offering education to the public through forums and dialogue to develop broad-based and research-driven solutions for improving education.
$1,593,514 spentof which $195 as grants$420,639 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,593,514.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $2.4M to $750k (−69%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2022 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 5 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Christopher Stewart
Chief executive officer
Board chair
Daniel Sellers
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2022 → 2023: the base narrowed from 5 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $2.2M → $2.3M.
1 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 22% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $375k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Results in Education Foundation Dba Brightbeam). These are real filings, and they are not money BRIGHTBEAM INC raised.
From the IRS filings of BRIGHTBEAM INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
BRIGHTBEAM INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 49% of grant income and the top three 83%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
35% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund BRIGHTBEAM INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2022 68% · 2023 52% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Where its funders are
BRIGHTBEAM INC draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Michigan, across 6 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Organizations like BRIGHTBEAM INC
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Michigan
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
74% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
51%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Results in Education Foundation Dba Brightbeam · exempt
- Brightbeam Action Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BRIGHTBEAM INC: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds BRIGHTBEAM INC?
- BRIGHTBEAM INC (Michigan) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,454,470 to it, the largest being Walton Family Foundation Inc ($2,668,723). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BRIGHTBEAM INC have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $5,454,470 in grants to BRIGHTBEAM INC, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BRIGHTBEAM INC?
- Walton Family Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $2,668,723 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BRIGHTBEAM INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Michigan. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Brightbeam →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2021–2025), and the filings of 7 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing