Rivier University
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 020223339
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Aug 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Nashua, NH, US
- Phone
- (603) 888-1311
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- University or Technological Institute
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $75,357,674
- Expenses
- $71,273,731
- Assets
- $200,070,103
- Liabilities
- $82,024,303
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
38 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Sister Paula Marie Buley ihm (President)
Highest reported compensation
- Clair Glossner (FT Faculty): $219,761 total reported compensation
- Paula Williams (VP Academic Affairs): $202,810 total reported compensation
- Steven Perrotta (VP Finance & Admin): $192,581 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Our Mission
What it reported doing in 2024
Instructional, academic support, and student services expenses related to providing instructional services for 2,193 undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students. Instructional programs range from liberal arts to professional studies. Programs such as nursing and education lead to licensure.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 89% 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 66% for direct work, and 34% for grants.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 81
- Transparency & Controls: 83
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 60
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 81%; rating input score 81
- Program expense ratio: 86.5%; rating input score 86
- Fundraising efficiency: $34.65 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- 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; 77th 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; 77th 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: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 5.4%; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.81; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.41; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 2.5%; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 5.2% per year; rating input score 100; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 4.5% per year; rating input score 100; 37th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 6.7% per year; rating input score 100; 49th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 8 programs and campaigns described on the official site
- Where the money goes: 81% of revenue deployed · 86.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 26 of 26 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $61.6M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $220K · 38 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $12.4M reported
- Consistency: 37 of 37 current checks pass
- Schedules: 11 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2009 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 10 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
- 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.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 58/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 44/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 46/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.