Wills Eye Hospital
Legal name: City of Philadelphia Trustee Administering Wills Eye Hospital
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 236000204
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Location
- Philadelphia, PA, US
- Phone
- 2159283320
- Rating
- 87
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Standard
- Sector
- Hospital, General
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $48,269,287
- Expenses
- $58,414,307
- Assets
- $106,337,234
- Liabilities
- $28,258,977
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
23 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- BERNARD W SMALLEY ESQ (PRESIDENT)
- HON MICHAEL A NUTTER (VICE PRESIDENT)
- LYNETTE M BROWN-SOW (VICE PRESIDENT)
- JOSEPH P BILSON (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER /E)
Highest reported compensation
- DR JULIA HALLER (MEDICAL DIRECTOR): $1,307,116 total reported compensation
- JOEL SCHUMAN (PHYSICIAN): $590,665 total reported compensation
- JOSEPH P BILSON (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER /E): $441,293 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Skill with compassion.
What it reported doing in 2024
Health care provider: provides health care to individuals on an inpatient and outpatient basis. Physicians of the organization volunteered their time performing eye exams and eye surgeries at no charge. The organization hosted periodic diabetes screening events, community screening and patient educating events, and a give kids sight day where more than a seven hundred screenings were conducted and children received eye glasses at no charge. See schedule o for more information.
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.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 91
- Transparency & Controls: 80
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 29
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 91.8%; rating input score 92
- Fundraising efficiency: $12.75 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 45; 45th 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: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- 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: Yes; rating input score 100
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- 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: -21%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.82; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.27; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 7.7%; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 5.7% per year; rating input score 100; 47th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 7.8% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 0.4% per year; rating input score 100; 11th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 6 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 91.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 12 of 12 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $53.6M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $1.3M · 23 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $6.5M reported
- Consistency: 34 of 34 current checks pass
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, executive pay, and related organizations
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2009 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 11 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 13 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.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 45/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 5/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 58/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 31/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 50/100.