Massachusetts · Nonprofit
FAIRPLAY INC
FAIRPLAY INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,597,675 to it, the largest being Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($751,550). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 69% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.4M
- Funders on record
- 23
- Grants received
- $1.6M
- Net assets
- $2.5M
What Fairplay Inc does
Mission
Fairplay works to enhance children's well-being by eliminating the exploitative and harmful business practices of marketers and big tech.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
On its FY2024 return the organization reported starting a significant new program.
Phone free schools, young children advocacy
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 2).
Fairplay leads the designed with kids in mind (dwkim) coalition - comprised of organizations who collaborate to educate the public, lawmakers, and policy makers about the harmful impacts of big tech's manipulative business model upon young people, and advocate for enactment and enforcement of protections on the national and state levels. Member organizations are: fairplay; accountable tech; the american academy of pediatrics; center for digital democracy; center for humane tech; children and screens: institute of digital media and child development; common sense; electronic privacy information center (epic); exposure labs, creators of the social dilemma; parentstogether action; and rainn (rape, abuse and incest national network).
$1,375,933 spentof which $169,000 as grants59% of program spendingThe screen time action network at fairplay is a global collaborative of practitioners, educators, advocates, and parents working to reduce excessive and harmful screen use in childhood and protect kids online. Our five work groups are the heart of the network, creating smaller communities focussing on complex topics related to children's screen time, online harms prevention, screens in schools, mental health, early childhood and nature & play. Work group members support each other's individual work and concerns and collaborate to create resources and advocacy projects to help many children and families.
$247,545 spent11% of program spendingFairplay completed a qualitative research report on the unfair impacts of marketing in social gaming spaces, like roblox and fortnite. The report supports fairplay's mission to eliminate exploitative and harmful business practices by calling out specific practices and how they harm adolescents. The report will be used to bolster future campaigns for corporate accountability in order to protect kids from related harms. The report was published in february 2025 (https://fairplayforkids.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/buying-to-belong.pdf).
$30,197 spent1% of program spendingFairplay's "young children thrive offline" works to eliminate the harmful and exploitative business practices of big tech and marketers that impact young children. Activities include narrative change work, public awareness and corporate accountability campaigns, and coalition-building.after establishing policies, procedures, and staffing the program, fairplay's young children thrive offline program conducted research and published a white paper, "hooked from birth: promoting structural change and avoiding parental shame in the battle to reduce early childhood screen time," along with a messaging guide for partners. The program disseminated this new narrative framework through trainings, conference presentations, and meetings with partners. To address harmful business practices impacting young children, fairplay called out google for opening its gemini ai chatbot to young children under 13, including filing a ftc complaint and letter to google's ceo. Additional campaigns were developed for implementation in fy26. The program also convened cross-sector experts through roundtable events and led new initiatives within fairplay's screen time action network early childhood workgroup.
$660,186 spent29% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,313,861.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2024, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2024, 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.
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 $1.1M to $2.7M (+142%).
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.
99% of FAIRPLAY INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 2 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
Josh Golin
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2022 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 6 funders, grant income rose $21k → $22k.
9 of 23 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 69% 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 FAIRPLAY 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
FAIRPLAY INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 47% of grant income and the top three 69%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
69% 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 FAIRPLAY INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2022 49% · 2023 68% — growing more concentrated.
“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
69% of FAIRPLAY INC's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $503k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Massachusetts, across 9 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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.
Against its field
FAIRPLAY INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,064 youth development nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,064 youth development nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like FAIRPLAY 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
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Fairplay Forward Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FAIRPLAY 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 FAIRPLAY INC?
- FAIRPLAY INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,597,675 to it, the largest being Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($751,550). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 69% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does FAIRPLAY INC have?
- IRS filings report 23 organizations giving $1,597,675 in grants to FAIRPLAY INC, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FAIRPLAY INC?
- Silicon Valley Community Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $751,550 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FAIRPLAY 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.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2024–2025), and the filings of 23 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