City of Fountains School
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 454093008
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2019–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2013
- Location
- Kansas City, MO, USA
- Phone
- 8168395756
- Rating
- 79
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Education N.E.C.
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $670,033
- Expenses
- $742,354
- Assets
- $397,336
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
6 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- Daniela Hindman (Presider): $47,757 total reported compensation
- Kari Cottell (Director): $39,119 total reported compensation
- Layla Olberding (Faculty Chair): $31,755 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 City of Fountains School (the School) has a mission which honors the wonder and importance of childhood by (a) engaging and educating the head, heart and hands, (b) fostering creative innovative individuals capable of free independent thought, (c) and nourishing each child's relationship with the natural world and its rhythms thus cultivating a lifelong reverence for what is good beautiful and true.The School integrates arts with academics offering a developmentally appropriate curriculum inspired by Waldorf educational pedagogy. The School educates children to become individual creative thinkers from early childhood through 8th grade. The School's curriculum is filled with the basics such as reading, writing, arithmetic, history and science. It is enriched with music, art, movement, games, nature, exploration, foreign language and handwork classes.
What it reported doing in 2024
The School's early childhood program offers two mixed-age Kingergarten classes (ages 3.5 to 6 years old) and a Parent-Child class (infants to 3.5 years old).The School provides a nurturing environment for the children and gives them ample opportunity to learn through play and purposeful activities. Reverence is held for both the natural world and the unfolding child. The day is structured in a rhythmic movement that engages the head, heart and hands.Parents in the Parent-Child class are able to practice mindful parenting while learning about Waldorf Education and child development. Parents are also given the opportunity to connect with one another as the children learn through age-appropriate play.During the year ended June 30, 2025, the early childhood program served 45 kindergarten students and 35 parent-child families running from the first Tuesday after Labor Day through the last Friday before Memorial Day with a weekly schedule of Monday to Friday 8:45 am to 3:00 pm.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 93% 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
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 86
- Transparency & Controls: 90
- Accountability: 54
- Sustainability: 28
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 99.7%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 90%; rating input score 90
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
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: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 57.1%; rating input score 57; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Limited
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -10.8%; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.54; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 16%; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 27.4% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 21.4% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 30.1% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 99.7% of revenue deployed · 90% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 4 of 7 board members independent · 4 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $668K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $48K · 6 people listed
- Consistency: 18 of 18 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 6 filing years from 2019 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 3 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: Independent voting board scored 57/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 16/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 25/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 21/100.