Montessori School of Los Altos
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 942155096
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Palo Alto, CA, USA
- Phone
- 6504937200
- Rating
- 75
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Kindergarten, Preschool, Nursery School, Early Admissions
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $922,694
- Expenses
- $817,306
- Assets
- $978,918
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
3 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Danielle Engelman (CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- Nicole Engelman (CFO): $50,555 total reported compensation
- Danielle Engelman (CEO): $36,900 total reported compensation
- Rachel Brooks (Secretary): $3,500 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Education of young children, ages 2 to 6 years, using the Montessori Educational System principles.
What it reported doing in 2024
Preschool program and kindergarten for approximately 50 children, ranging in age from three to six years old, using and promoting the Montessori Educational System.
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 - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 69
- Transparency & Controls: 90
- Accountability: 62
- Sustainability: 59
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 74.3%; rating input score 74
- Program expense ratio: 84%; rating input score 84
- Fundraising efficiency: $0.18 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 2; 2nd 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: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 66.7%; rating input score 67; 14th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 5 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 56
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 11.4%; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.2; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 11.1%; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 3% per year; rating input score 100; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 3.5% per year; rating input score 100; 34th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 14.3% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 74.3% of revenue deployed · 84% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 2 of 3 board members independent · 5 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $687K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $51K · 3 people listed
- Consistency: 22 of 22 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2011 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.
- 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.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 2/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 8 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 48/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 33/100.
- Review — Grant Readiness: California registration: this organization could not be resolved against the register, so the check is unfinished.