Saint Mary's College of California
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 941156599
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Location
- Moraga, CA, US
- Phone
- (925) 631-4000
- Rating
- 80
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- University or Technological Institute
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $182,429,431
- Expenses
- $218,019,651
- Assets
- $338,623,891
- Liabilities
- $141,045,024
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
40 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- MICHAEL MATOSO (VICE PRESIDENT FOR ATHLETICS)
- RICHARD PLUMB (FORMER PRESIDENT)
- ROGER THOMPSON (PRESIDENT)
- SANDRA KIM (VICE PRESIDENT OF FINANCE)
Highest reported compensation
- RANDALL W BENNETT (HEAD COACH, M. BASKETBALL): $1,996,333 total reported compensation
- MICHAEL MATOSO (VICE PRESIDENT FOR ATHLETICS): $633,994 total reported compensation
- RICHARD PLUMB (FORMER PRESIDENT): $444,615 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Saint Mary's is a Lasallian Catholic university.
What it reported doing in 2024
Higher education: instruction, departmental research, student aid, library, art museum, residence halls, dining, intercollegiate athletics for 1,954 undergraduate students and 781 graduate students, total of over 2,735 students.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 90% 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 62% for direct work, and 38% for grants.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and most voting board members are independent. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 85
- Transparency & Controls: 65
- Accountability: 98
- Sustainability: 28
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 83%; rating input score 83
- Fundraising efficiency: $4.38 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 94.7%; rating input score 95; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: No; rating input score 0
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 96.2%; rating input score 96; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- 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: -19.5%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.55; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.42; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 2.6%; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 1.8% per year; rating input score 100; 14th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 1.2% per year; rating input score 100; 9th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 1.6% per year; rating input score 100; 13th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 3 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 83% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 25 of 26 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $180.9M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $2M · 40 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $2.3M reported
- Consistency: 36 of 37 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 13 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 16 filing years from 2009 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 14 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 2 filed related-organization links
- 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: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 18/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 4/100.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Related-party transparency scored 0/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 54/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 43/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 45/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Schedule R controlled transactions itemized did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.