Grace Academy
Legal name: High Country Christian Education Ministries
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 262961966
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Boone, NC, United States
- Phone
- (828) 773-7830
- Rating
- 82
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Elementary, Secondary Education, K - 12
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,335,258
- Expenses
- $1,252,631
- Assets
- $573,005
- Liabilities
- $160,424
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
People named in this filing
- Matthew Cottrell (Chair)
- Don Wood (Treasurer)
- Mary Houck (Board Member)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Grace Academy partners with families of the High Country to provide a distinctively classical Christian education with a Biblical worldview in order to equip students for a lifetime of learning, service, and leadership to the glory of God. Self-Identification, Homosexual, Bisexual, Transgender, and Other:** We believe homosexual, bisexual, transgender, adultery, fornication, LGBTQ+, and other action, speech, and behavior outside of God’s design to be sin; therefore, declaring acceptance of, condoning the practice of, or stating support for such is not acceptable from Grace Academy students and staff. Sanctity of Human Life:** We believe that all human life is sacred and created by God in His image. Human life is of inestimable worth in all its dimensions, including pre-born babies, the aged, the physically or mentally challenged, and every other stage or condition from conception...
What it reported doing in 2024
Grace Academy provides a classical Christian education to students in grades K-9.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Other-operating. 93% of the money available for current operations came from other operating 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 total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 86
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 70
- Sustainability: 44
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 93.9%; rating input score 94
- Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
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: 2 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 29
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 6.2%; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.46; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.28; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 21% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 18.6% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -2.1% per year; rating input score 0; 12th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 93.9% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 2 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.3M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 40 of 40 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2020 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- 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.
- High — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 6 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 21/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 53/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 26/100.