Preschool Promise Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 814799474
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2017–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Dayton, OH, USA
- Phone
- 9373292700
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Educational Services and Schools - Other
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $11,158,995
- Expenses
- $10,988,226
- Assets
- $5,616,698
- Liabilities
- $3,796,615
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- ROBYN LIGHTCAP (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- ROBYN LIGHTCAP (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $242,071 total reported compensation
- MARIE GIFFEN (SR DIRECTOR OF FINANCE): $178,659 total reported compensation
- ASHLEY MARSHALL (SR DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS): $137,256 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Preschool promise's vision is that every child in montgomery county, Ohio is ready for success in kindergarten and beyond. We are doing that by improving the early childhood system so that every child can access high-quality programs and services - such as child care and preschool, home visiting, healthcare and parenting support.
What it reported doing in 2025
Improve quality: preschool promise provides intensive, year-long professional development to teachers and administrators to continuously improve the learning in classrooms; teachers receive stipends for their participation. Child care and preschool sites, and teachers receive grants to help them improve the early learning classroom environment. Preschool promise offers the scholars program to help teachers earn degrees and credentials in early childhood education.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 92% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 57% for direct work, and 43% for grants.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 79
- Transparency & Controls: 71
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 26
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 88.5%; rating input score 88
- Program expense ratio: 89.9%; rating input score 90
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Missing
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 76th 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- 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: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 1.5%; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.51; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.68; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 6.3%; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 15.4% per year; rating input score 100; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 15.4% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 15.6% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 88.5% of revenue deployed · 89.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $9.9M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $242K · 11 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 30 of 30 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 8 filing years from 2017 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.
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 — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 31/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 12/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Whistleblower policy not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 15/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 48/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.