The Dahlia School of San Francisco Elementary

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
881767954
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2021
Location
San Francisco, CA, USA
Phone
4153755700
Rating
66
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Specialized Education Institutions

Reported finances

Revenue
$626,768
Expenses
$507,888
Assets
$1,010,476
Liabilities
$872,641

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

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • Alejandra Tryon (Secretary): $164,860 total reported compensation
  • Lindsey Barnes (Board Fundraising Chair): $46,248 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 Montessori Method helps all children become truly capable and productive individuals by focusing on their moral, behavioral, emotional, and intellectual development. Our Montessori Guides are Association of Montessori Internationale and American Montessori Society trained educators bringing world-class experience and environments to the children, classroom, school and families.

What it reported doing in 2024

As the only elementary school in the Mission Bay neighborhood, the Dahlia School of San Francisco Elementary aims to create a high quality, equitable, beautiful learning environment. We offer and plan to accept tuition assistance programs as we believe educational opportunities should be available to families in our community regardless of financial means. We are a Spanish-immersion Montessori school. Through the Montessori curriculum, students gain an appreciation for the vastness and richness of the world-and emerge ready to explore their unique place within it. The Montessori Method helps all children become truly capable and productive individuals by focusing on their moral, behavioral, emotional, and intellectual development. Our Montessori Guides are Association of Montessori Internationale and American Montessori Society trained educators bringing world-class experience and environments to the children, classroom, school and families. As a high-fidelity immersion program, our guides teach in Spanish, allowing children to naturally develop bilingual fluency. Through this approach, our students learn to read, write, speak, and sing with confidence in both Spanish and English.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 61% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Cannot be determined from the filing. The program-spending lines do not add up, so the filing cannot show reliably whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 68
  • Transparency & Controls: 65
  • Accountability: 57
  • Sustainability: 62
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 62.3%; rating input score 62
  • Program expense ratio: 76.8%; rating input score 77
  • Fundraising efficiency: $33.64 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Missing
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 80%; rating input score 80; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 2 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 25
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 19%; rating input score 75; 75th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.99; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.86; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 3.3%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 64.6% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 95.4% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 63.3% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 62.3% of revenue deployed · 76.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 4 of 5 board members independent · 2 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $390K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $165K · 5 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 29 of 29 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2022 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • 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 — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 8/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.