Revolution School

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
831371202
IRS 990 coverage
2018–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Philadelphia, PA, USA
Phone
2156313697
Rating
78
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Secondary, High School

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,456,054
Expenses
$2,352,319
Assets
$189,496
Liabilities
$1,346,669

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

10 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • JUSTINE HOFFMAN (HEAD OF SCHOOL): $151,996 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Revolution school is breaking down the walls between learning and life because high school can and should be a revolution. We are creating an environment for education where students and teachers are inspired by each other, their world, and what matters. We're building an infrastructure that allows a truly place-based, humanistic, learner-centered school to thrive and grow.our school rests on a network of innovative educators and invested community members who understand the importance of situating student learning at the heart of today's interconnected world.

What it reported doing in 2024

Revolution school's primary service is providing philadelphia-area high school students with a personalized, exploratory, opportunity-focused education it is revolutionizing high school as a place that transcends classrooms and integrates real-world situations, empowering students with authentic experience. Founded in 2019, revolution school was created by educators and students interested in breaking down the walls that confine the conventional systems of education.diversity defines our learning community with students harkening from over 25 zip codes across the philadelphia region. Unfortunately, many of those zip codes struggle to provide students with an education suitable for developing their potential and motivating them to advance their learning. At revolution school, we leverage the rich resources of our city through program-related community partnerships to drive genuine connections to learning, and we recognize the paramount importance of centering the student experience around agency, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration.another significant program initiative was supported by our vela grant and leveraged a pilot program with mit's center for constructive communication. Recent graduates and the faculty of revolution school created "revchat," a unique tool/system for exploring the intersection between profession and passion. We train students in the art of communication writing, interviewing, conversing, and presenting; the process of research transcribing interviews, coding key language, identifying themes, and writing narrative reports; and the practice of networking making introductions, making phone calls, making requests, and saying thank you.we recruit nextgen peers and industry leaders for revchats brief, engaging discussions on careers, pathways, and company cultures. We created a process for these conversations to break down wallsbetween generations, and we want our findings and the knowledge our students carry with them to spark ideas for improving the future of work for the nextgen workforce and their future employers.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 80% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 56% for direct work, and 44% 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 fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 87
  • Transparency & Controls: 71
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 8
  • Growth: 80

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 79.7%; rating input score 80
  • Fundraising efficiency: $12.06 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • 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: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -61.6%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.08; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 7.11; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 6.5%; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 25.8% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 9.8% per year; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -18% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 79.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.9M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $152K · 10 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 29 of 29 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 7 filing years from 2018 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 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.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 44/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 2/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 4/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 49/100.