Buncombe County Schools Foundation Inc

What it reported doing in 2024

2. Innovative Grant Support *Innovative Educator Grants - Whether it was a grant related to the Arts, Physical Education, the schools and the central office, our grant writers did an outstanding job articulating how their students would learn and grow. In 2024-25 these funds were directed to Hurricane Helene Relief. *BCSF also works with the six traditional high school on the Paddison Grants. These funds are available each year due to a large donation. Schools receive between $18,000 and $25,000 each year to enhance learning in their schools. 3. Scholarship Support Student Scholarships - BCS is proud to provide a robuse scholarship program. With over 63 named scholarships which are funded through private donors, our BCSF Scholarship program will provide over $500,000 this year to BCS Graduates. BCSF implemented an online platform where we had over 363 applicants. We appreciate our 79 readers who were charged with reading 854 individual scholarship specific applications. This was a tall task, but they did it! For this fiscal school year, we are proud to offer 10-$1,000 scholarships for students who had family working in BCS. We thank all our scholarship donors, school counselors, and readers for their time and support of our scholarships. *** Hurricane Helen Relief In addition to our three priorities, this year brought an extra challenge- Hurricane Helene. Through donations from generous donors (some local, some in NC, and across our nation) we received over $300,000 in funds to help our students, staff and schools. We were proud to present over 500 BCS colleagues $75,000 to assist them in their recovery efforts. Through donations we were able to provide $222,293.74 to BCS schools for students, staff and school recovery. When BCS schools opened, $45,000 in grants were used to pay expenses for counselors who came across the state to be there for our schools.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 85.2%; rating input score 85
• Program expense ratio: 91.2%; rating input score 91
• Fundraising efficiency: $85.39 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 85; 85th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: Limited
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd 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: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
  • Whistleblower policy: Fail
  • Document-retention policy: Fail
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 21.7%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.53; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: Limited

Growth

• Program expense growth: 6.9% per year; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 6.6% per year; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 1.9% per year; rating input score 100; 19th percentile among comparable filings