The Fund for Educational Excellence
Legal name: Fund for Educational Excellence Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 521129402
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Baltimore, MD, USA
- Phone
- 410-685-8300
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Elementary, Secondary Education, K - 12
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $30,673,408
- Expenses
- $27,887,178
- Assets
- $35,054,202
- Liabilities
- $4,216,608
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
25 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- ROGER SCHULMAN (President & CEO)
- JULIA BAEZ (CEO, BALT PROMISE)
- BRIDGET BLOUNT (DEP CEO - BP)
Highest reported compensation
- ROGER SCHULMAN (President & CEO): $320,998 total reported compensation
- JULIA BAEZ (CEO, BALT PROMISE): $242,875 total reported compensation
- CHUCK ADKINS (CFO): $238,717 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To ensure every student in Baltimore City has access to an excellent and equitable education.
What it reported doing in 2024
ACCELERATE SOLUTIONS - With community input, The Fund identifies challenges, researches and develops recommendations, and pushes for innovative solutions to improve Baltimore City Public Schools policies, processes, and programs. We regularly publish reports that combine strong analytics with community input to address some of the most pressing problems facing our students, we provide on-demand workshops to help students and families navigate the districts school choice process for middle and high school, we partner with Baltimore City Public Schools Office of Early Learning and local providers to expand Pre-K options to 3- and 4-year olds, and run an early-childhood development program that provides parents of pre-school age children with effective parenting strategies for behavioral management and skills to support their childrens academic success.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 83% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 76% for direct work, and 24% for grants.
- 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. Total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown and some filed totals do not add up.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 83
- Transparency & Controls: 78
- Accountability: 96
- Sustainability: 57
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 81.5%; rating input score 82
- Program expense ratio: 89%; rating input score 89
- Fundraising efficiency: $31.57 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 88.2%; rating input score 88; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Pass
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 99.3%; rating input score 99; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 94.4%; rating input score 94; 28th 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: 9.1%; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.26; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.12; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 6.1%; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 16.6% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 13.1% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 13.7% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 11 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 81.5% of revenue deployed · 89% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 17 of 18 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $24.8M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $321K · 25 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $1.1M reported
- Consistency: 33 of 36 current checks pass · 3 findings to review
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2009 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 82 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 74 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.
- 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.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 44/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Schedule G fundraiser detail did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 42/100.