Celebration Center

Legal name: Christian Education Development Company

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
680427679
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2024
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Brentwood, CA, USA
Phone
9252405437
Rating
82
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Kindergarten, Preschool, Nursery School, Early Admissions
Affiliation
Christianity

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,850,383
Expenses
$2,690,995
Assets
$2,968,320
Liabilities
$582,288

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

Leadership & pay

6 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • JENEANE STEVENS (President)
  • SHERMAN BALCH (CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • JENEANE STEVENS (President): $63,408 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 organization carries out its primary mission through the operation of celebraton center, which consists of a preschool, afterschool program, and grades kindergarten through fifth grade. The center operates as a christian ministry dedicated to spreading the gospel of jesus

What it reported doing in 2024

Celebration center is licensed by the state of California and accredited by the association of christian schools international. The school exists to demonstrate the love of jesus christ by providing christ-centered programs. The school offers a toddler program, preschool program, elementary school, and an after school program. The enrollment in each of these programs is more than sufficient, with the toddler and preschool programs at capacity. The school picks up public elementary students for after school care from 5 schools in brentwood and oakley and has developed an exceptionally fun program that children do not want to leave. The school only hires teachers committed to jesus and to providing the highest quality education to children, understanding the developmental needs of children in all aspects of their growth. Teachers attend more than 20 hrs of training each year to maintain best practices in education. The school believes that a strong family is the backbone of a strong society so is committed to providing family events including children's christmas and spring musicals, dad's day celebration, mom's day celebration, grandparent's day, bible studies, pancake breakfasts, online resources, and more. The school has also offered a summer enrichment program kinder readiness free of charge to children of low income families for over 20 years. This program is a 7-week program primarily serving non english speaking children entering kindergarten.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 92% 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.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 77
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 80
  • Sustainability: 50
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 74.5%; rating input score 75
  • Program expense ratio: 79%; rating input score 79
  • Fundraising efficiency: $72.84 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 83; 83rd 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: 83.3%; rating input score 83; 16th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • 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: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 5.6%; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.1; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.2; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 2.4%; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 4.8% per year; rating input score 100; 38th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 4.5% per year; rating input score 100; 38th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 4.5% per year; rating input score 100; 32nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: Mission, programs, and operating context captured from the official website.
  • Where the money goes: 74.5% of revenue deployed · 79% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 6 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $2.1M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $63K · 6 people listed
  • Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
  • 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.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 52/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 40/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 44/100.