Lees-McRae College
Legal name: Lees-mcrae College Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 560529953
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Banner Elk, NC, US
- Phone
- 828.898.8763
- Rating
- 79
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Undergraduate College (4-year)
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $52,335,611
- Expenses
- $47,457,091
- Assets
- $131,313,844
- Liabilities
- $52,209,852
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
27 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- HERBERT KING JR (PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- HERBERT KING JR (PRESIDENT): $387,289 total reported compensation
- KEVIN PHILLIPS (SVP OF ENROLLMENT MANAGEME): $224,732 total reported compensation
- BLAINE HANSEN (VP OF AASSESSMENT & EFFECTIVENESS): $206,366 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Lees-McRae College provides a transformative education that inspires students to reach their greatest potential through hands-on learning and a supportive community.
What it reported doing in 2024
Education, general / other: lees-mcrae college is an accredited, non-profit, coeducational, nonsectarian institution of higher education with enrollment of approximately 910 undergraduate students.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 67% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 65% for direct work, and 35% for grants.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - 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 reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 74
- Transparency & Controls: 75
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 65
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 73.3%; rating input score 73
- Program expense ratio: 79.1%; rating input score 79
- Fundraising efficiency: $25.59 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 68th 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- 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: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 9.3%; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.77; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.4; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 2.9%; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 3.3% per year; rating input score 100; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 2.9% per year; rating input score 100; 21st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 7.5% per year; rating input score 100; 55th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 73.3% of revenue deployed · 79.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 21 of 21 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $37.6M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $387K · 27 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $11.3M reported
- Consistency: 33 of 33 current checks pass
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 16 filing years from 2009 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 6 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.
- 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.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Form 990 shared with the board not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 40/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 45/100.