Sagebrush Elementary School

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
461064904
IRS 990 coverage
2018–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Richland, WA, USA
Phone
5097137322
Rating
79
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Elementary, Secondary Education, K - 12

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$874,500
Expenses
$780,130
Assets
$904,825
Liabilities
$470,248

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

Leadership & pay

6 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • ROB DARLING (PRESIDENT AND BOARD CHAIR)
  • BILL PIKE (VICE PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • SAMANTHA MAY (HEAD OF SCHOOL): $96,591 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 is to provide children ages 3-12 with a traditional montessori education in a warm and nurturing environment where we celebrate each child as an individual and embrace religious and cultural differences.

What it reported doing in 2024

We provided 98 children ages 3-12 with a traditional montessori education in a warm and nurturing environment where each child was celebrated as an individual and where religious and cultural differences were embraced. Through the years since sagebrush elementary school's inception, both sagebrush elementary school and sagebrush montessori thrived and grew together as a community. In the fall of 2018, sagebrush elementary school acquired sagebrush montessori, a privately-owned school with authentic montessori preschool and kindergarten programs and merged into a single non-profit organization now collectively known as sagebrush montessori. Acquisition of sagebrush montessori was finalized in spring 2019.during the fiscal year 2024-2025, sagebrush montessori offered two programs: 1. Children's house classrooms; designed for children ages 3-6 with a half-day program for preschoolers and a full-day program for kindergartners.2. Elementary program classrooms which provide traditional montessori education for children ages 6-12.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 87% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% 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 some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 71
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 84
  • Sustainability: 49
  • Growth: 80

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 75.2%; rating input score 75
  • Program expense ratio: 84.2%; rating input score 84
  • Fundraising efficiency: $4.65 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 16; 16th 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: Limited
  • 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: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • 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: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 10.8%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.16; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.52; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 12.4%; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 6% per year; rating input score 100; 47th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 6.1% per year; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -0.8% per year; rating input score 0; 15th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 75.2% of revenue deployed · 84.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $657K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $97K · 6 people listed
  • Consistency: 27 of 27 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 7 filing years from 2018 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 16/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 47/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 15/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 29/100.