Nichols College
Overview
Mission
Nichols college strives to develop tomorrow's leaders through a dynamic, career-focused business education. The college transforms students into successful graduates who respond to challenges, are eager for responsibility, and assume significant roles in the global economy. The nichols experience happens in a welcoming environment where students are encouraged to learn and grow under the guidance of mentoring faculty and staff committed to student success.
What it reported doing in 2024
Nichols college provides education to approximately 2,000 degree-seeking students including 1,072 full time students, leading to associates, bachelors, and masters degrees, primarily in business. Approximately 807 of the 1,072 full time day students are provided with food and housing. The college additionally provides admissions services, financial aid services, athletic opportunities, residence life support, career placement, new student orientations, health services, and registrar services to the student body.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 93% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 57% for direct work, and 43% for grants.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 042104778
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Headquarters
- Dudley, MA, USA
- Rating
- 86
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Universities
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 79
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 34
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 87.9%; rating input score 88
- Program expense ratio: 85.7%; rating input score 86
- Fundraising efficiency: $3.59 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
- Public monitoring controls: Limited
- Public policy transparency: Limited
- Public financial transparency: Limited
- Impact reporting controls: Limited
- Public relationship transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Public governance controls: Limited
- Zakat policy transparency: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -5.5%; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Operating reserve ratio: 1.59; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.21; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 3%; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 2.3% per year; rating input score 100; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 2.1% per year; rating input score 100; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 4.9% per year; rating input score 100; 36th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 87.9% of revenue deployed · 85.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 29 of 29 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $58.5M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $337K · 39 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 35 of 35 current checks pass
- Schedules: 12 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 16 annual filings from 2009 to 2024
- Money network: 10 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 2 filed related-organization links