Philips Academy
Legal name: Philips Academy of North Carolina Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 203125525
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2015–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Charlotte, NC, US
- Phone
- 704.365.4533
- Rating
- 82
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Secondary, High School
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $2,691,477
- Expenses
- $2,335,224
- Assets
- $7,206,402
- Liabilities
- $1,129,402
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
15 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- Deborah Hofland (Executive Dir.): $129,750 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Philips Academy is a private non-profit school for students in middle and high school with complex language, learning and/or cognitive disabilities. Our mission is to provide our students with the academic, occupational and social skills needed to be self-reliant, confident and contributing members of their communities.
What it reported doing in 2024
The school provides a place for students with learning disabilities to receive a quality education. 74 students were served during the 2024-2025 school year.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 61% 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 - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 67
- Transparency & Controls: 94
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 65
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 70.7%; rating input score 71
- Program expense ratio: 79.7%; rating input score 80
- Fundraising efficiency: $3.44 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 10; 10th 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: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
- 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: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 13.2%; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.09; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.16; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 5.6%; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 13.9% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 12.8% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 20.7% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 2 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 70.7% of revenue deployed · 79.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 14 of 14 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.9M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $130K · 15 people listed
- Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 9 filing years from 2015 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 10/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 49/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 50/100.