Sweet Briar College
Legal name: Sweet Briar Institute
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 540534105
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Location
- Sweet Briar, VA, US
- Phone
- 434-381-6100
- Rating
- 74
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Standard
- Sector
- Undergraduate College (4-year)
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $43,099,012
- Expenses
- $42,074,706
- Assets
- $156,182,102
- Liabilities
- $11,986,862
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
31 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- MARY POPE HUTSON (PRESIDENT)
- DR MEREDITH WOO (FORMER PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- MARY POPE HUTSON (PRESIDENT): $382,841 total reported compensation
- PETER BRYAN (VP FINANCE, OPERATIONS & AUX): $251,729 total reported compensation
- DR MEREDITH WOO (FORMER PRESIDENT): $200,000 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Sweet Briar College educates women of consequence, confidence and grit, forging ethical leaders with the skill, compassion, and vision to create a more just and sustainable world.
What it reported doing in 2024
Auxiliary enterprises: to provide students with housing, food services, recreation and instructional materials. Benefits approximately 406 students.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 76% for direct work, and 24% for grants.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 71
- Transparency & Controls: 76
- Accountability: 98
- Sustainability: 61
- Growth: 0
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 79%; rating input score 79
- Program expense ratio: 72.7%; rating input score 73
- Fundraising efficiency: $5.52 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 94.4%; rating input score 94; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Compensation committee: Pass
- 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: 1 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 12
- Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
- Requires narrative reports: Fail
- Conducts field audits: Fail
- May suspend future funding: Fail
- Requires financial reports: Fail
- Conducts site visits: Fail
- Requires grant agreements: Fail
- May require repayment: Fail
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 95.7%; rating input score 96; 29th 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: 2.4%; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.71; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.08; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 3.9%; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -2% per year; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -0.6% per year; rating input score 0; 7th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -1% per year; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: Mission, programs, and operating context captured from the official website.
- Where the money goes: 79% of revenue deployed · 72.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 22 of 23 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $30.6M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $383K · 31 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $3.4M reported
- Consistency: 50 of 50 current checks pass
- Schedules: 11 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: 9 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight: 7 of 8 not reported.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 22/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 44/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.