Purnell School
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 221756952
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2020
- Forms available
- Form 990 2020
- Location
- Pottersville, NJ, USA
- Phone
- 9084392154
- Rating
- 76
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Primary, Elementary Schools
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $5,105,017
- Expenses
- $5,824,540
- Assets
- $4,284,615
- Liabilities
- $1,563,146
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2020. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
15 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- ANNE GLASS (ASSOCIATE HEAD OF SCHOOL): $215,084 total reported compensation
- JOESPH MCPEAK (CFO): $129,251 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2020. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Purnell school's mission is to educate young women in grades nine through twelve within a creative, reflective, and supportive classroom and boarding community. Students discover their unique strengths in preparation for college and the world. Purnell students learn to be ethical, independent, and self-confident working with faculty who act as mentors, teach to all kinds of learning styles and model the school's founding guidelines: consideration of others, truthfulness in all relations, and use of common sense.
What it reported doing in 2020
The school provides residential secondary education to approximately 58 young women in grades 9 through 12. The school also provides extra-curricular activities, cultural programs, and other ancillary services.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 63% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 80% 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 expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 71
- Transparency & Controls: 83
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 20
- Growth: 40
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 79.9%; rating input score 80
- Program expense ratio: 70%; rating input score 70
- Fundraising efficiency: $8.77 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Pass
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 71st 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 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
- 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: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -14.1%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.74; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.36; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 5.9%; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 2.9% per year; rating input score 100; 41st percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -3.3% per year; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -14.7% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 79.9% of revenue deployed · 70% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 13 of 13 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $4.1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $215K · 15 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 30 of 30 current checks pass
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 11 filing years from 2010 to 2020
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 12 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 26/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 7/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 26/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 31/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 46/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.