Saint Mary's College
Legal name: The Corporation of Saint Mary's College Notre Dame
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 350868158
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Location
- Notre Dame, IN, USA
- Phone
- 574-284-4000
- Rating
- 82
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Standard
- Sector
- Undergraduate College (4-year)
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $150,948,474
- Expenses
- $130,845,754
- Assets
- $532,031,106
- Liabilities
- $86,306,789
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
42 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- SHEILA KATHERINE CONBOY (PRESIDENT)
- HOLLY JOHNSON (VICE PRESIDENT FOR ADVANCEMENT)
- JULIANNE WALLACE (VICE PRESIDENT FOR MISSION (Through 09/2024))
- LORI JOHNSON (VICE PRESIDENT FOR STUDENT ENROLLMENT AND ENGAGEMENT)
- MEGAN ZWART (INTERIM PROVOST AND VICE PRESIDENT FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS)
- PETER CHRISTENSEN (VICE PRESIDENT FOR FINANCE AND OPERATIONS)
Highest reported compensation
- SHEILA KATHERINE CONBOY (PRESIDENT): $604,372 total reported compensation
- HOLLY JOHNSON (VICE PRESIDENT FOR ADVANCEMENT): $277,545 total reported compensation
- LORI JOHNSON (VICE PRESIDENT FOR STUDENT ENROLLMENT AND ENGAGEMENT): $254,734 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 College, a Catholic, women's, liberal arts college, educates students to think critically, act justly, and lead with integrity, preparing them to make the world a better place.
What it reported doing in 2024
As a center of higher education, the corporation of saint mary's college, notre dame (saint mary's) fosters an academic climate of scholarship and learning for faculty and students alike. Through excellence in teaching and the example of its own active scholarship, the faculty challenges students to expand their horizons and supports them in their intellectual pursuits. A broad-based course of study invites students to think critically and creatively about the natural world and human culture. Acknowledging the need to prepare women for an array of careers, saint mary's insists on a liberal arts foundation for all its students. Through their years at saint mary's, students acquire depth and breadth of knowledge, competence in quantitative skills and modern languages, the ability to think clearly about complex problems, and the capacity to communicate with precision and style. (continued in schedule o)
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Other-operating. 75% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 58% for direct work, and 42% 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 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: 80
- Transparency & Controls: 75
- Accountability: 91
- Sustainability: 76
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 86.9%; rating input score 87
- Program expense ratio: 89.2%; rating input score 89
- Fundraising efficiency: $5.03 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 21; 21st 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: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- 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: Limited
- Conducts field audits: Limited
- May suspend future funding: Limited
- Requires financial reports: Limited
- Conducts site visits: Limited
- Requires grant agreements: Limited
- May require repayment: 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: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 44th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- 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: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 13.3%; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.07; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.16; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 2.2%; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 3.7% per year; rating input score 100; 28th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 4.1% per year; rating input score 100; 34th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 5.7% per year; rating input score 100; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 programs and campaigns described on the official site
- Where the money goes: 86.9% of revenue deployed · 89.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 28 of 30 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $116.7M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $604K · 42 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $2.3M reported
- Consistency: 41 of 41 current checks pass
- 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: 16 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 21/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Form 990 shared with the board not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 51/100.