Acorn School of Charleston

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
811282931
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2019
Location
North Charleston, SC, USA
Phone
8436932810
Rating
79
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Primary, Elementary Schools

Reported finances

Revenue
$577,333
Expenses
$550,576
Assets
$37,304
Liabilities
$0

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • KRISTEN BRATTEN (ADMINISTRATOR): $104,750 total reported compensation
  • MARIA PHILLIPS (BOARD MEMBER): $58,488 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The acorn school of charleston inc. Nurtures childrens' highest capacities of thinking, feeling, and willing by cultivating a sense of truth, the power of imagination, and a feeling of responsibility for themselves and the world around them.

What it reported doing in 2024

The acorn school offers mixed-age kindergarten and first grade programs for children ages three through seven, inspired by waldorf early childhood education, a play-based experiential learning approach. Waldorf teachers are dedicated to fostering a genuine love of learning in each child. Created by educator, scientist and philosopher rudolf steiner, this educational approach is designed to respond to children's developmental phases and nurture their imaginations. His educational aims were to encourage creativity, innovations, freedom of thought, stewardship of the natural world, and care for human community.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 67% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 99% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - 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 some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 72
  • Transparency & Controls: 89
  • Accountability: 86
  • Sustainability: 35
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 75.5%; rating input score 76
  • Program expense ratio: 79.2%; rating input score 79
  • Fundraising efficiency: $7.2 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 6 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 67
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 4.6%; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.07; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 29.6%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 8.8% per year; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 23.5% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 8.7% per year; rating input score 100; 54th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 75.5% of revenue deployed · 79.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 6 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $436K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $105K · 5 people listed
  • Consistency: 21 of 22 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 6 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 2 filed related-organization links
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 27/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 3/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 49/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 7/100.