The Benjamin School
Legal name: The Benjamin Private School Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 591536502
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- North Palm Beach, FL, USA
- Phone
- 561-657-0075
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Standard
- Sector
- Elementary, Secondary Education, K - 12
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $57,377,989
- Expenses
- $42,878,013
- Assets
- $143,568,918
- Liabilities
- $33,641,460
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
25 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- DAVID FAUS (HEAD OF SCHOOL): $628,216 total reported compensation
- LESLIE DOWNS (CFO/COO): $250,453 total reported compensation
- KRISTEN SHEEHAN (HEAD OF LOWER SCHOOL): $243,674 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The Benjamin School provides a challenging college preparatory education to a diverse student body in a structured, nurturing community environment.
What it reported doing in 2024
The benjamin school motivates students to master the skills of learning, communicating and evaluating choices, and encourages them to grow intellectually, socially, morally, aesthetically and physically to their fullest individual potential. The school addresses the students' academic needs while developing and supporting their interest in and passion for the arts, athletics and community service. The school provides a challenging college preparatory education with 32 advanced placement courses, 23 honors courses and state-of-the-art science and world language laboratories. In the current year the school had 100% college matriculation to some of the nation's most prestigious universities.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Other-operating. 78% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 88% 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
STRONG - 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 reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 73
- Transparency & Controls: 88
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 75
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 69.8%; rating input score 70
- Program expense ratio: 89.5%; rating input score 89
- Fundraising efficiency: $9.61 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 40; 40th 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: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- 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: 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: 25.3%; rating input score 90; 90th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.35; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.23; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 4.5%; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 10.8% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 6.3% per year; rating input score 100; 54th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 5.2% per year; rating input score 100; 38th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 7 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 69.8% of revenue deployed · 89.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 18 of 18 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $38.4M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $628K · 25 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 3 contractors listed · $1.8M reported
- Consistency: 36 of 36 current checks pass
- Schedules: 11 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 16 filing years from 2009 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 7 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.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 40/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 20/100.