The Children's Garden School
Legal name: Issaquah Valley Family Education Association
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 911221112
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Issaquah, WA, US
- Phone
- (425) 392-1563
- Rating
- 77
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Standard
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $363,353
- Expenses
- $382,041
- Assets
- $528,856
- Liabilities
- $30,899
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Erin Carpinito (President)
- Taylor Phillips (Vice President)
People named in this filing
- Erin Carpinito (President)
- Jen Carpinito (Secretary)
- Ross Spero (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
The Children's Garden School provides children with a rich curriculum and nurturing atmosphere that celebrates uniqueness, promotes self-esteem, and encourages cooperative, caring social interactions based upon mutual respect.
What it reported doing in 2024
Tuition and fees
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 83% 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
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 64
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Accountability: 70
- Sustainability: 40
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 70.9%; rating input score 71
- Program expense ratio: 69.1%; rating input score 69
- Fundraising efficiency: $3.51 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- 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: -5.1%; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.38; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.06; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 2.9% per year; rating input score 100; 44th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 1.3% per year; rating input score 100; 31st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 4.4% per year; rating input score 100; 45th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 7 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 70.9% of revenue deployed · 69.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 2 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $264K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 10 people listed
- Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules
- Filing history: 9 filing years from 2011 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 16/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 29/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 49/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 31/100.