Snow Lion Preschool

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
874626053
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Boulder, CO, USA
Phone
7208790498
Rating
74
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Kindergarten, Preschool, Nursery School, Early Admissions

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$818,163
Expenses
$545,142
Assets
$585,624
Liabilities
$66

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

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • RACHEL FLAX KAPLAN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/PRESIDENT)
  • DANIEL KAPLAN (VICE PRESIDENT/TREASURER)

Highest reported compensation

  • RACHEL FLAX KAPLAN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/PRESIDENT): $81,211 total reported compensation
  • DANIEL KAPLAN (VICE PRESIDENT/TREASURER): $5,625 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

To serve, guide and support families through their childrens' first school experiences. We value connection and play above all else, and we seek to understand each child as a unique individual who learns (continued on schedule o)and experiences the world in their own style and at their own pace, forming connections and developing trust in their own ways.such experiences include but are not limited to: separation, developing trust with teachers, accepting the full range of childrens' emotions and actions, fostering social connections.snow lion preschool serves children ages 17 months to 5 years old in mixed age classes - a toddler class, and a preschool aged class.

What it reported doing in 2024

Snow lion preschool served 47 children with quality teaching, guiding and support as they engaged in their first social experiences and continue to identify and navigate their emotions. We graduated 16 children who are prepared to succeed in kindergarten with the stamina, confidence, and self-awareness necessary to thrive in school. Each graduate gained abilities to self-regulate, ask for help, communicate, problem solve and more. We prepared 31 children to move into their next year of preschool with trust, comfort, a budding sense of emotional awareness and a developing sense of self, others and peer interactions.we guided our parent community and equipped it with the tools and knowledge to understand and support (continued on schedule o)their children's social and emotional development and to give themselves grace as they learn with their children.snow lion preschool continues to support parents and children year to year with high quality teachers, low student to teacher ratios (6:1 or 7:1), strong dedication to connections, process over product, empathy and play. Our school is wholly committed to early childhood education and a strong community bond. We're fully enrolled for the 2025-26 school year with a long waiting list of families eager to join.in the 2024-25 school year (august 2024 start) we granted tuition assistance totaling $39,249 to seven families that requested and qualified for it through our facts tuition assistance calculator. Our annual appeal raised $10,250.49 for curriculum materials and teacher support. Access is extremely important to us. In addition to tuition assistance, we offer access to children with various developmental challenges including fragile x syndrome, fox-p1 and other delays. We offered speech and vision screenings, and we referred several children for occupational therapy evaluations. We have speech and occupational therapists provide services to students while they're at school.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 96% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 92% 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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 69
  • Transparency & Controls: 87
  • Accountability: 61
  • Sustainability: 66
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 64.8%; rating input score 65
  • Program expense ratio: 98.4%; rating input score 98
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 94.7%; rating input score 95; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 60%; rating input score 60; 12th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 33.4%; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.07; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 15.9%; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 29.3% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 18.2% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 32.5% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 64.8% of revenue deployed · 98.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 3 of 5 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $537K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $81K · 5 people listed
  • Consistency: 28 of 29 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2022 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.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 45/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 21/100.