Program areas at Big Thought
At Big Thought, we believe that all youth have innate greatness. Our North Star is that all youth are equipped to imagine and create their best lives and world. Driven by our mission to make imagination a part of everyday learning, Big Thought is a social impact enterprise that focuses on youth development by preparing young creators with the skills and resources they need for the 21st century workplace. We exist to empower and equip youth to Create Great we're creating creators. At Big Thought, we provide the space and agency to support young creators through our programs and partnerships, which are powered by our dedicated research and development team that enables us to design high quality evidence-based programs, measure our impact, and expand our reach.Throughout our 30+ year history of innovation, Big Thought has become an award-winning national model in arts education, out of school time systems, summer learning and juvenile justice intervention. Now, we're one of six community partnerships in the U.S. helping scale national best practices in social and emotional learning.At our core, we empower youth to build their creative muscle, develop social and emotional skills and wellbeing and create their authentic voice.Big Thought implements three approaches to deliver this work:1. Direct to youth programs. We develop and deliver high quality curriculum and programs to serve communities with the greatest need. Big Thought programs reach on average over 4,000 students for more than 443,000 learning hours annually.2. Learning Systems - We do this by strategically connecting partners and resources across the city to create learning systems that address these themes. Big Thought Learning Systems reach on average over 20,000 students for more than 2.1 million learning hours annually.3. Powered by Big Thought, Big Thought Institute (BTI) - is an innovative partner that enables organizations to expand their capacity to build creativity, develop 21st Century skills, and deliver unique learning experiences. BTI provides professional learning, consulting, design and research-based services to empower our clients to effectively teach, develop and create. We leverage evidence-based best practices in creativity and learning systems that have been established over 30 years. BTIs client services impact adults who impact youth, engaging with an average of 10,000+ adults and having an indirect impact on hundreds of thousands of youth.
Who funds Big Thought
Grants from foundations and other nonprofits
Financials for Big Thought
| Revenues | FYE 06/2024 | FYE 06/2023 | % Change |
|---|
| Total grants, contributions, etc. | $9,080,706 | $7,232,620 | 25.6% |
| Program services | $3,463,090 | $3,980,359 | -13% |
| Investment income and dividends | $27,528 | $15,728 | 75% |
| Tax-exempt bond proceeds | $0 | $0 | - |
| Royalty revenue | $0 | $0 | - |
| Net rental income | $0 | $0 | - |
| Net gain from sale of non-inventory assets | $16,514 | $-18 | 91844.4% |
| Net income from fundraising events | $0 | $-198,761 | -100% |
| Net income from gaming activities | $0 | $0 | - |
| Net income from sales of inventory | $0 | $0 | - |
| Miscellaneous revenues | $68,386 | $0 | 999% |
| Total revenues | $12,656,224 | $11,029,928 | 14.7% |
Organizations like Big Thought
| Organization | Type | Location | Revenue |
|---|
| The Center for Teen Empowerment (TE) | 501(c)(3) | Boston, MA | $10,126,141 |
| New City Kids | 501(c)(3) | Grand Rapids, MI | $6,063,271 |
| Aspira of New York | 501(c)(3) | New York, NY | $8,417,836 |
| Junior Achievement of Georgia | 501(c)(3) | Atlanta, GA | $14,345,358 |
| Junior Achievement of Alabama | 501(c)(3) | Birmingham, AL | $8,836,769 |
| Trailblazer Camps | 501(c)(3) | Brooklyn, NY | $4,270,295 |
| Bridges USA | 501(c)(3) | Memphis, TN | $5,030,607 |
| The Food Project | 501(c)(3) | Lincoln, MA | $3,588,306 |
| The Door - A Center of Alternatives | 501(c)(3) | New York, NY | $38,801,850 |
| Kids Upstate | 501(c)(3) | Spartanburg, SC | $5,198,186 |
Data update history
May 24, 2025
Received grants
Identified 12 new grant, including a grant for $1,000,000 from Wal-Mart Foundation February 28, 2025
Updated personnel
Identified 4 new personnel
February 23, 2025
Updated personnel
Identified 2 new personnel
January 13, 2025
Received grants
Identified 8 new grant, including a grant for $945,000 from Fidelity Foundation October 31, 2024
Updated personnel
Identified 5 new personnel
Nonprofit Types
Youth development programsYouth service charitiesHeadquarter / parent organizationsCharities
Issues
EducationArts, cultural, and humanitiesHuman servicesChildren
Characteristics
Receives government fundingCommunity engagement / volunteeringTax deductible donationsAccepts online donations
General information
- Address
- 1409 Botham Jean Blvd 1015
- Dallas, TX 75215
- Metro area
- Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX
- County
- Dallas County, TX
- Website URL
- bigthought.org/Â
- Phone
- (214) 520-0023
- Facebook page
- BigThoughtDallasÂ
- Twitter profile
- @bigthoughtÂ
IRS details
- EIN
- 75-2170035
- Fiscal year end
- June
- Taxreturn type
- Form 990
- Year formed
- 1987
- Eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions (Pub 78)
- Yes
Categorization
- NTEE code, primary
- O50: Youth Development Programs, Other
- NAICS code, primary
- 624110: Child and Youth Services
- Parent/child status
- Central organization
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