Big Reuse
Big Reuse
EIN: 46-5083170
as of November 2023
as of November 13, 2023
Mission
Big Initiatives and Big Reuse are formed to protect the environment, reduce climate change and conserve natural resources and energy through community based zero waste initiatives. Big Initiatives and Big Reuse will achieve this charitable purpose of environmental protection through operations of a reuse center, community composting network, environmental education and outreach, and green job training.
Ruling year
2016
Executive Director
Justin Green
Main address
1 12th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11215-3108 USA
EIN
46-5083170
Climate change
Solid waste management
Sustainable development
Job training
Recycling
Population served
Adults
NTEE code
Recycling (C27)
Natural Resource Conservation and Protection (C30)
IRS subsection
501(c)(3) Public Charity
IRS filing requirement
This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.
Tax forms
Communication
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Big Reuse Center
We have a warehouse full of building materials, furniture, homegoods, books and more and serve everyone from contractors and interior design professionals to renters. Reuse treasures abound in our aisles. Shop for beauty. Shop for quality. Shop for the environment!
NYC Compost Project Hosted by Big Reuse
Big Reuse partners with the Department of Sanitation’s NYC Compost Project , an urban community-scaled composting network. Big Reuse operates 2 urban compost producing sites: Queensbridge Community Composting site and Gowanus Salt Lot Composting site. We also run a network of 75+ community food scrap drop offs. These are associated with community gardens and NYC Parks. The compost we produce is given back to community gardens, NYC Parks and individuals. We provide technical assistance, education opportunities, and outreach to community groups.
Curbside Composting Outreach
The Curbside Composting Outreach Team, in partnership with the Department of Sanitation is promoting awareness of New York City’s efforts to have all residents save their food scraps at home and put them in a special compost bin for pick-up once a week by Sanitation.
Where we work
Affiliations & memberships
US Composting Council Award for Composter of the Year-Small Scale 2020
External reviews
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Total weight of materials recycled
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Big Reuse Center
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Through resale, Big Reuse diverted 1MM lbs of goods from the landfill. We sold 28,000 pieces of clothing, 25,000 books, 4,400 records, 87,000 home good items, 4,000 pieces of furniture.
Total Compost Production
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
NYC Compost Project Hosted by Big Reuse
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Big Reuse operates 2 urban-scaled composting sites. In FY 22 we took in over 2.3 MM lbs of organics and produced 1,054 cubic yards of compost that was given back to community groups and NYC parks.
Total Curbside Composting Outreach
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Curbside Composting Outreach
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
The Team promotes awareness of curbside composting. They engaged 60,000 New Yorkers at community events, canvassed over 11,000 homes, coordinated 900 events, and gave out 7,000 1 lb bags of compost.
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Big Reuse advances New York City’s sustainable urban environment through circular economy programs that divert waste from our landfills and reduce greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. We pursue our work through reuse and transformation. The Big Reuse Center takes in tens of thousands of donated items that are resold and kept in use by thousands of new owners, keeping them out of the landfill. Through the NYC Compost Project and Curbside Composting Outreach we help New Yorkers sustain city-wide composting programs that collect food scraps and turn them into compost used to enrich soil across New York City and strengthen our green infrastructure against climate change.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Financials
Financial documents
Download audited financialsRevenue vs. expenses: breakdown
Liquidity in 2021 info
0.20
Months of cash in 2021 info
1.1
Fringe rate in 2021 info
16%
Funding sources info
Assets & liabilities info
Financial data
Big Reuse
Balance sheetFiscal Year: Jan 01 - Dec 31
The balance sheet gives a snapshot of the financial health of an organization at a particular point in time. An organization's total assets should generally exceed its total liabilities, or it cannot survive long, but the types of assets and liabilities must also be considered. For instance, an organization's current assets (cash, receivables, securities, etc.) should be sufficient to cover its current liabilities (payables, deferred revenue, current year loan, and note payments). Otherwise, the organization may face solvency problems. On the other hand, an organization whose cash and equivalents greatly exceed its current liabilities might not be putting its money to best use.
Fiscal Year: Jan 01 - Dec 31
This snapshot of Big Reuse’s financial trends applies Nonprofit Finance Fund® analysis to data hosted by GuideStar. While it highlights the data that matter most, remember that context is key – numbers only tell part of any story.
Created in partnership with
Business model indicators
| Profitability info | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrestricted surplus (deficit) before depreciation | $51,469 | $167,785 | $44,782 | $173,203 | $283,521 |
| As % of expenses | 1.5% | 5.6% | 1.5% | 10.4% | 9.9% |
| Unrestricted surplus (deficit) after depreciation | $35,818 | $152,134 | $21,256 | $155,093 | $271,758 |
| As % of expenses | 1.0% | 5.1% | 0.7% | 9.2% | 9.5% |
| Revenue composition info | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total revenue (unrestricted & restricted) | $3,522,255 | $3,148,489 | $2,969,823 | $1,813,348 | $3,144,873 |
| Total revenue, % change over prior year | 65.5% | -10.6% | -5.7% | -38.9% | 73.4% |
| Program services revenue | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Membership dues | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Investment income | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Government grants | 52.9% | 62.5% | 62.1% | 44.7% | 57.0% |
| All other grants and contributions | 0.2% | 0.7% | 0.8% | 2.7% | 0.6% |
| Other revenue | 46.9% | 36.8% | 37.2% | 52.6% | 42.3% |
| Expense composition info | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total expenses before depreciation | $3,470,786 | $2,980,704 | $2,925,041 | $1,673,145 | $2,861,352 |
| Total expenses, % change over prior year | 44.2% | -14.1% | -1.9% | -42.8% | 71.0% |
| Personnel | 58.7% | 67.1% | 65.3% | 67.5% | 54.7% |
| Professional fees | 3.3% | 1.1% | 0.4% | 0.9% | 9.0% |
| Occupancy | 14.6% | 12.5% | 15.9% | 18.2% | 17.6% |
| Interest | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.7% | 1.4% | 0.6% |
| Pass-through | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| All other expenses | 23.3% | 19.1% | 17.7% | 12.0% | 18.1% |
| Full cost components (estimated) info | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total expenses (after depreciation) | $3,486,437 | $2,996,355 | $2,948,567 | $1,691,255 | $2,873,115 |
| One month of savings | $289,232 | $248,392 | $243,753 | $139,429 | $238,446 |
| Debt principal payment | $8,123 | $28,084 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Fixed asset additions | $0 | $75,486 | $27,957 | $0 | $0 |
| Total full costs (estimated) | $3,783,792 | $3,348,317 | $3,220,277 | $1,830,684 | $3,111,561 |
Capital structure indicators
| Liquidity info | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Months of cash | 5.1 | 2.8 | 0.4 | 1.2 | 1.1 |
| Months of cash and investments | 5.1 | 2.8 | 0.4 | 1.2 | 1.1 |
| Months of estimated liquid unrestricted net assets | -0.9 | -0.7 | -0.6 | -0.1 | 1.1 |
| Balance sheet composition info | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash | $1,476,484 | $707,516 | $106,206 | $169,137 | $260,101 |
| Investments | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Receivables | $4,712 | $869 | $4,882 | $380,640 | $1,174,577 |
| Gross land, buildings, equipment (LBE) | $76,952 | $152,438 | $180,395 | $190,396 | $190,396 |
| Accumulated depreciation (as a % of LBE) | 49.7% | 35.3% | 42.9% | 50.6% | 56.8% |
| Liabilities (as a % of assets) | 113.9% | 108.1% | 121.7% | 88.8% | 78.3% |
| Unrestricted net assets | -$221,021 | -$68,887 | -$47,631 | $81,687 | $353,445 |
| Temporarily restricted net assets | $0 | $0 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Permanently restricted net assets | $0 | $0 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Total restricted net assets | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Total net assets | -$221,021 | -$68,887 | -$47,631 | $81,687 | $353,445 |
Key data checks
| Key data checks info | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Material data errors | No | No | No | No | No |
Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Documents
Executive Director
Justin Green
15+ years of management and development experience, including founding executive director of environmental non-profit.
Core Knowledge & Skill Areas
- Strategic leadership in business development and creation of innovative programs.
- Oversight and coordinating all aspects of budgeting and financial management.
- Fostering organizations with broad based constituent groups including board, government, corporations, funders, job training participants from underserved communities, volunteers, and diverse staff.
- Organizational development through periods of substantial growth and transition.
- Fundraising, grant writing, government proposal development and funder relationship building.
Key achievements include piloting city wide effort to coat roofs to reduce heat island effect, creating city’s first building material reuse centers, partnering with multiple work training programs, developing mid scale community composting program, and launching city wide outreach effort to increase p
Number of employees
Source: IRS Form 990
Big Reuse
Officers, directors, trustees, and key employeesSOURCE: IRS Form 990
Compensation data
There are no highest paid employees recorded for this organization.
Big Reuse
Board of directorsas of 05/08/2023
Board of directors data
Kate Grossman
Noah Leff
The Overbrook Foundation
Christine A. Coletta
Hirschen Singer & Epstein LLP
Little Wing Lee
Studio & Projects
Josh Treuhaft
Apple
Justin Green
Big Reuse
Elizabeth Aceituno
World Wildlife Fund
Althea Erickson
Rustle Lab at Center for Cultural Innovation
Tishya Ballaney
S&P Global
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
-
Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? No -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Contractors
Fiscal year endingGuideStar Pro Reports
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- Letter of Determination
- Officer and/or Employee data for 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017
- Contractor and/or Paid Preparer data for 2021, 2020, 2019
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