Montessori Connection NFP
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 203173076
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2013–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Highland Park, IL, USA
- Phone
- 8478319393
- Rating
- 68
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Kindergarten, Preschool, Nursery School, Early Admissions
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,940,072
- Expenses
- $1,782,791
- Assets
- $740,372
- Liabilities
- $135,416
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
12 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Laurie Ward (Executive Director/Board Member)
- Carol Lee (President)
- Jennifer Van Cleve (Vice President)
Highest reported compensation
- Patricia Parker (Secretary): $93,520 total reported compensation
- Laurie Ward (Executive Director/Board Member): $69,000 total reported compensation
- Norma Morley (Treasurer): $55,300 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Education of children from ages 2 through kindergarten.
What it reported doing in 2025
Education of children.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 99% 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. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 62
- Transparency & Controls: 90
- Accountability: 48
- Sustainability: 36
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 67.6%; rating input score 68
- Program expense ratio: 74.1%; rating input score 74
- 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: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 50%; rating input score 50; 14th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 44
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 8.1%; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.42; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.18; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 16.4%; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 4.9% per year; rating input score 100; 36th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 5.4% per year; rating input score 100; 40th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 22.5% per year; rating input score 100; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 67.6% of revenue deployed · 74.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 6 of 12 board members independent · 4 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.3M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $94K · 12 people listed
- Consistency: 29 of 29 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules
- Filing history: 11 filing years from 2013 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 5 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 50/100.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 9 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 21/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 52/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 22/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 27/100.