Veritas Christian Academy
Legal name: Living Word Christian School
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 431775017
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- O’Fallon, MO, USA
- Phone
- 636-978-1680
- Rating
- 85
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Elementary, Secondary Education, K - 12
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $7,721,431
- Expenses
- $8,202,271
- Assets
- $10,835,537
- Liabilities
- $5,958,903
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- JAKE IBBETSON (HEAD OF SCHOOL): $139,003 total reported compensation
- NEAL WIESCHHAUS (CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER): $62,310 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
A Christian education will influence the course of your child’s entire life; Veritas Christian Academy provides a safe space for students to wrestle with the challenges of a complicated world, confident in the hope found only in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Board members are selected from among qualified candidates who demonstrate a personal commitment to Christ, active involvement in a local church, alignment with VCA’s mission and values, and possess skills that will support organizational needs. Those interested in serving are encouraged to prayerfully consider this calling and contact the Board for more information about the nomination process. If you are interested in serving on the Board, please email [email protected] for more details. Our board commitment is a 3-year term, serving approximately 3-5 hours monthly. Doug Brackenridge headshot.
What it reported doing in 2024
Student activities: in addition to the academic, artistic, and athletic program, all 6th-12th grade students along with families provided over 15,000 community service hours to various organizations in our local community. Students also work with international, environmental, civic, and community organizations. Activities include assisting international and special needs children, providing meals through "feed our starving children and "backpack buddies," beautifying community and nonprofit facilities, collecting shoeboxes for samaritan's purse, volunteering at the sharing shed local mission, collecting items for "adopt a soldier, and sending our musical groups to local nursing homes..(see schedule o)lastly, campus facilities are provided without cost for police training, community event parking, and sports and academic competition activities.
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 91% 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
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: 84
- Transparency & Controls: 94
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 33
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 87.5%; rating input score 88
- Program expense ratio: 82.6%; rating input score 83
- Fundraising efficiency: $28.13 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
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: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- 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: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -6.2%; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.32; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.55; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 2.5%; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 1.1% per year; rating input score 100; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 12.4% per year; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -0.6% per year; rating input score 0; 11th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 87.5% of revenue deployed · 82.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $6.8M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $139K · 8 people listed
- Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $180K reported
- Consistency: 33 of 33 current checks pass
- Schedules: 9 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2009 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 3 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: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 18/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 47/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 19/100.