Gaston Christian School
Legal name: Gaston Christian School Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 561244158
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Jul 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Gastonia, NC, US
- Phone
- 704-824-4128; 980-484-3888
- Rating
- 80
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $12,952,121
- Expenses
- $12,572,428
- Assets
- $29,848,712
- Liabilities
- $20,761,114
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
15 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- DR MARC STOUT (EX-OFFICIO): $234,245 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 mission of Gaston Christian School is to help students mature spiritually and excel academically by offering a biblically-integrated college preparatory program that will enable them to impact the kingdom of God by living productive Christian lives. Lindsay is a native of Gaston County and graduated from Western Carolina University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration. She joined the GCS team in 2019 as Director of Admissions and moved into the Advancement role in 2022. As VP of Advancement, Lindsay works directly with our Head of School to coordinate all fundraising efforts that support the school’s mission. She also provides direction and oversight for special events, parent relations, marketing, and admissions. EMAIL.
What it reported doing in 2024
To provide a christian education while helping students to mature spiritually and excel academically by offering a biblically-integrated, college-preparatory program that will enable them to impact the kingdom of god by living productive christian lives.
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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 83
- Transparency & Controls: 70
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 53
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 83.9%; rating input score 84
- Program expense ratio: 86.8%; rating input score 87
- Fundraising efficiency: $25.17 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
- Compensation committee: Missing
- 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: 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: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 2.9%; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.37; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.7; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 1.9%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 7.2% per year; rating input score 100; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 6.7% per year; rating input score 100; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 6.8% per year; rating input score 100; 47th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 83.9% of revenue deployed · 86.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 12 of 12 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $10.9M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $234K · 15 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 3 contractors listed · $1.6M reported
- Consistency: 26 of 26 current checks pass
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2009 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 46/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 18/100.