Blueprint

What it reported doing in 2024

Blueprint is accelerating the pace of urban school reform as a non-profit developer for public charter school facilities. By partnering with some of the nation's highest performing organizations that operate schools serving low-income students, we are helping these groups expand and serve more families. We create small, academically-friendly, sustainable and environmentally-responsible charter school campuses at a fraction of the "cost-per-seat" incurred by traditional public school systems. To date, blueprint has completed nearly $1.4 billion in total projects, leveraging philanthropy, private financing, and state funding to create 115 facilities serving 55,000 students across multiple school districts and municipalities. The majority of schools supported by blueprint's services serve at least 75% socio-economically disadvantaged students. Blueprint builds public charter schools that provide smaller, more customized learning environments that are yielding superior academic results. Charter schools are free public schools. Admission is open to all and determined by an unbiased lottery of the applicants to the school. The demand for charter schools continues to grow as more parents become aware of this opportunity for their children. Blueprint is at the forefront of making this transformative change in k-12 public education. Via the project development process, blueprint helps schools overcome tremendous barriers to find, finance, entitle, build and secure facilities. Blueprint's development fee and project management fees are below market and services provided to schools are more expansive than those offered in the market. As a landlord, blueprint charges a below-market rent. When each charter school tenant reaches a state of maturity defined by metrics involving academic and financial performance and community support, blueprint works with each school's leadership team to secure long-term financing to support the purchase of their campuses at cost from blueprint. In doing so, charter schools acquire real assets and long-term balance sheet stability while blueprint recycles committed equity so each philanthropic dollar generates additional charter school seats many times over. Blueprint's partners continue to include some of the leading foundations involved in urban education reform. These organizations have been able to seed the activities of blueprint with large enough support to jumpstart blueprint's capital intensive business model.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 47.5%; rating input score 47
• Program expense ratio: 82.5%; rating input score 83
• Fundraising efficiency: $136.35 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
  • Compensation committee: Missing
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
  • Written employment contract: Pass
  • Compensation survey or study: Missing
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 87.5%; rating input score 88; 20th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
  • 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: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 54.4%; rating input score 95; 95th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 19.18; rating input score 96; 96th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.4; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 33.4%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: -1.9% per year; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 8.9% per year; rating input score 100; 69th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 5.5% per year; rating input score 100; 39th percentile among comparable filings