Hope Community Charter School
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 454786899
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2016–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Oaklyn, NJ, USA
- Phone
- 2017854490
- Rating
- 65
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Charter Schools
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $3,845,056
- Expenses
- $3,911,464
- Assets
- $1,382,121
- Liabilities
- $1,233,090
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
7 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- ROBIN RUIZ (SCHOOL BUS ADMI): $166,079 total reported compensation
- JENNIFER SMITH (School Leader): $140,375 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 hope community charter school is to provide a safe, caring, literacy rich learning environment that guides and inspires students in building a solid academic foundation. Literacy will be the path to a solid academic foundation by developing, in each student, a highly literate and effective communicator who is a self reflective and responsible decision maker.
What it reported doing in 2024
The hope community charter school provides a full range of educational services appropriate to grade levels kindergarten through grade 6. The charter school completed the 2024-2025 school year with an enrollment of 113 students, which was a decrease of 15.04% from the previous school year. While the state of New Jersey's budget restraints was felt down to the charter school level, there was no compromise to the quality of the programs in place at hope community charter school during the regular instructional day. The charter school's budget was prepared to ensure that all students have textbooks, materials, supplies, equipment and programs which they might need to meet New Jersey's core curriculum content standard.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 90% 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.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 68
- Transparency & Controls: 66
- Accountability: 59
- Sustainability: 21
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 76.7%; rating input score 77
- Program expense ratio: 77.1%; rating input score 77
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 57.1%; rating input score 57; 9th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -1.7%; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.35; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.89; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 7.8%; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 3.9% per year; rating input score 100; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 2.7% per year; rating input score 100; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 6.2% per year; rating input score 100; 41st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 76.7% of revenue deployed · 77.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 4 of 7 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $3M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $166K · 7 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $92K reported
- Consistency: 22 of 22 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes executive pay
- Filing history: 9 filing years from 2016 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 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 — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 57/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 8 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 27/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 11/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 8/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 38/100.