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Massachusetts · Nonprofit

BRIGHTER BOSTON INC

BRIGHTER BOSTON INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $614,966 to it, the largest being THE CABOT FAMILY CHARITABLE TRUST ($131,000). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$667k
Funders on record
17
Grants received
$615k
Net assets
$260k
11/17 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 62%
01What it does

What Brighter Boston Inc does

Mission

Brighter boston guides teenagers to discover meaningful work and personal success through life-changing professional internships in the event production industry.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Brighter boston offers paid technical training in lighting, audio, video, set construction and stage management for live events, paid professional internship placements with the biggest producing organizations and venues in the region, and support for career and life. We offer the connecting link from education to a well paying and exciting career. During fiscal 2025, brighter boston provided internships to 40 individuals.

    $461,733 spent$109,767 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $461,733.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.

100 = 20202020 Revenue 100 ($117k) Expenses 100 ($93k) Net assets 100 ($54k)2021 Revenue 67 ($78k) Expenses 104 ($96k) Net assets 67 ($36k)2022 Revenue 236 ($275k) Expenses 235 ($217k) Net assets 174 ($94k)2023 Revenue 349 ($408k) Expenses 394 ($365k) Net assets 253 ($137k)2024 Revenue 424 ($495k) Expenses 510 ($472k) Net assets 295 ($160k)2025 Revenue 570 ($667k) Expenses 626 ($580k) Net assets 478 ($260k)
202020212022202320242025
Revenue (570)Expenses (626)Net assets (478)Peer revenue range

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 $160k to $260k (+62%).

$54k
$36k
$94k
$137k
$160k
$260k
202020212022202320242025
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2025 16%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

85% of BRIGHTER BOSTON INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (54% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 2,338 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.

$24k
’20
−$18k
’21
$58k
’22
$43k
’23
$23k
’24
$87k
’25
4.3
months of
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

Ann Sousa

Executive director

Board chair

Aja Jackson

Chair, director

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

2022202320242025
Listed9101010
Joined·+3+1+1
No longer listed·211
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $3k → $144k.

6 of 17 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 23% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.

From the IRS filings of BRIGHTER BOSTON INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 16 of 17 funders by total. 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

BRIGHTER BOSTON INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left

38% 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 BRIGHTER BOSTON INC.

21%
largest funder
46%
top three
~9
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 80% · 2019 67% · 2020 43% · 2021 62% · 2022 39% · 2023 31% — 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.

How long its funders stay

71% of BRIGHTER BOSTON INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y

Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.

Where its funders are

88% of BRIGHTER BOSTON INC's grant income comes from Massachusetts funders.

NY
MA
NC

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Massachusetts out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $144k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 states 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

BRIGHTER BOSTON INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 1,448 employment nonprofits its size.

Operating margin13% · above the median
Months of reserve4.3mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)42% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,448 employment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Government funding BRIGHTER BOSTON INC receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $93k on record.

State$93k
23
24
25
Top programs
  • (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$93k

Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.

Organizations like BRIGHTER BOSTON 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 Massachusetts

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

80% of spending goes to programs.

Program 80%Management 10%Fundraising 11%

Governance

9
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

78%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

MA

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BRIGHTER BOSTON 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.

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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 BRIGHTER BOSTON INC?
BRIGHTER BOSTON INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $614,966 to it, the largest being THE CABOT FAMILY CHARITABLE TRUST ($131,000). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does BRIGHTER BOSTON INC have?
IRS filings report 17 organizations giving $614,966 in grants to BRIGHTER BOSTON INC, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of BRIGHTER BOSTON INC?
THE CABOT FAMILY CHARITABLE TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $131,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like BRIGHTER BOSTON INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. 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 Brighter Boston →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 17 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