Calvin Christian School
Legal name: Calvin Christian School Society
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 362494328
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2014–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- South Holland, IL, United States
- Phone
- (708) 331-5027
- Rating
- 95
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Standard
- Sector
- Primary, Elementary Schools
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $3,238,021
- Expenses
- $3,293,956
- Assets
- $2,639,538
- Liabilities
- $76,654
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
12 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- ELSA FENNEMA (President)
- DIANE MCCOLLOUGH TRAVIS (Vice President)
People named in this filing
- DAVE JOUSMA (BOARD MEMBER)
- CHUCK GIST (BOARD MEMBER)
- KRISTY MEDEMA (BOARD MEMBER)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Calvin Christian School exists to educate God's children to boldly follow Christ for Kingdom service. Earn tuition credit by buying gift cards to use for everyday purchases! The program sells “scrip,” gift cards or certificates to be used just like cash. The scrip is issued by the national and local retailers where you and other Calvin families already shop. These merchants want to support non-profit organizations like Calvin Christian School, and in return ask you to support them by shopping with scrip at their stores. You can use scrip to purchase everyday items like food, clothing, gasoline, and other essentials. With every gift card purchase, you earn credit that will be directly applied twice per school year toward your tuition bill. Here's a list of participating retailers: RaiseRight.
What it reported doing in 2024
Operation of a christian school of approximately 200 students.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 64% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% 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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 98
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Accountability: 94
- Sustainability: 41
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 98.9%; rating input score 99
- Program expense ratio: 97.2%; rating input score 97
- Fundraising efficiency: $586.11 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 96; 96th 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: Limited
- 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 7 controls in place; rating input score 86
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- 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: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -1.7%; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.8; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 5.9% per year; rating input score 100; 44th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 6.4% per year; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 2.5% per year; rating input score 100; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 2 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 98.9% of revenue deployed · 97.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 12 of 12 board members independent · 6 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $3.2M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 12 people listed
- Consistency: 25 of 25 current checks pass
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 11 filing years from 2014 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- 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 — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 27/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 30/100.