Depaul School for Hearing and Speech
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 250965321
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA, USA
- Phone
- 4129241012
- Rating
- 90
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Specialized Education Institutions
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $5,234,558
- Expenses
- $5,504,118
- Assets
- $16,012,147
- Liabilities
- $650,759
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
26 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- DR RUTH AULD (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
- PATRICIA BOJARSKI (PRESIDENT/VICE PRES. (THRU 4.30.25))
- JONATHAN GRUBER (VICE PRESIDENT (AS OF 5.1.25))
Highest reported compensation
- DR RUTH AULD (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $148,546 total reported compensation
- MARY JO MAYNARD (EDUCATION DIRECTOR/PRINCIPAL): $104,344 total reported compensation
- CHARLES CHMURA (CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER): $100,795 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Depaul school provides children with listening and spoken language-based holistic education, including language acquisition, mathematics, science and social studies as well as art, music and physical education. These programs provide children who are deaf, and those whose educational needs qualify them to enroll at depaul. Services are provided at no cost to these children regardless of their religious beliefs, or cultural differences. Depaul's team of educators work collaboratively to equip these children with requisite educational skills to prepare them to transition to their neighborhood schools. In addition to depaul's hearing support program, depaul offers a speech and integrated language for literacy (saill) preschool for children with typical hearing, but severe language delays.
What it reported doing in 2024
The school provides quality listening and spoken language (lsl) education for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. These opportunities are provided to all children who qualify for admission regardless of religious, cultural, or ethnic backgrounds. The belief is that children who are deaf or hard of hearing have potential to develop lsl skills as the foundation for lifelong literacy and intellectual growth. The school strives to provide the best education for children who are deaf or hard of hearing through development of academic skills that ensure success in the educational and social mainstream. The school provides a learning environment that fosters the spiritual, emotional, and personal growth of each child. Depaul staff work together with the children and their families in the education process and value their participation in the child's education. The school engages professionals from medical, educational, and philanthropic communities to enlist support and collaborate in an effort to provide quality auditory oral services to the children and uses state-of-the-art audiological and educational services throughout the school.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 66% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 91
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 45
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 89.6%; rating input score 90
- Fundraising efficiency: $14.78 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 50; 50th 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: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- 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: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -5.1%; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.91; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 6.4%; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 6.2% per year; rating input score 100; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 4.6% per year; rating input score 100; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 4.2% per year; rating input score 100; 30th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 89.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 19 of 19 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $4.9M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $149K · 26 people listed
- Highest-paid contractors: 2 contractors listed · $355K reported
- Consistency: 36 of 36 current checks pass
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2009 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 50/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 20/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Form 990 shared with the board not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 45/100.