Forsyth School Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 430829718
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Saint Louis, MO, USA
- Phone
- 3147264542
- Rating
- 82
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Kindergarten, Preschool, Nursery School, Early Admissions
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $13,267,888
- Expenses
- $11,324,135
- Assets
- $30,609,139
- Liabilities
- $13,587,329
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
35 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- ABIGAIL GEORGE (PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- ROBERT BUTLER JR (HEAD OF SCHOOL): $340,409 total reported compensation
- ELIZABETH MCDONALD (ASSIST. HEAD OF SCHOOL, FIN & OPS): $158,636 total reported compensation
- MICHAEL MITCHELL (DIRECTOR OF FACILITIES): $127,043 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Forsyth school fosters a spirit of curiosity and joy, empowering children to pursue challenges with confidence.
What it reported doing in 2024
Forsyth school is a leading independent, co-educational elementary school for children age 2 through grade 6. At forsyth, our talented and caring faculty encourage students to explore and question, enabling them to learn deeply. Each child's unique identity is known, celebrated, and nurtured by our supportive community. The results are profound: children take risks, pursue challenges, and find joy in learning. The "forsyth experience" is enriched by the school's unique campus, location, and commitment to the natural world.forsyth provided educational services to 394 children in 2024/2025.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 81% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 88% 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 - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 69
- Transparency & Controls: 95
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 63
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 70.6%; rating input score 71
- Program expense ratio: 82.6%; rating input score 83
- Fundraising efficiency: $3.32 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 6 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Pass
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Pass
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th 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: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- 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: 14.7%; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.7; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.44; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 9.8%; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 2.4% per year; rating input score 100; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 2.2% per year; rating input score 100; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 5.8% per year; rating input score 100; 41st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 70.6% of revenue deployed · 82.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 27 of 27 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $9.4M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $340K · 35 people listed · 6 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $129K reported
- Consistency: 38 of 38 current checks pass
- Schedules: 10 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 7 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 13/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 21/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 33/100.