The Dogwood School Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
853726538
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2020
Location
Richmond, VA, USA
Phone
8046654902
Rating
66
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Animal-Related N.E.C.

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$618,188
Expenses
$566,827
Assets
$460,444
Liabilities
$270,821

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

Leadership & pay

13 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Paul Rice (Vice President)
  • Lauren Robertson (President)

People named in this filing

  • Ryan Grammer (Director)
  • Micheal Innes (Director)
  • Paul Rice (Vice President)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

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

Overview

Mission

The Dogwood School, Inc doing business as Dogwood Preschool is a Virginia corporation located within the County of Henrico, Virginia formed to provide early childhood education to young children. Dogwood Preschool is governed by the Board of Directors, who are persons with interests in creating and operating a stimulating educational environment for children during their early years. We provide quality early childhood education to children which is fundamental to fostering the productive and civic capacity of its citizens. These activities are funded through student tuition payments, charitable donations, and foundation grants. Dogwood Preschool as policy and practice does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin, religion, gender or on the basis of physical and/or mental disability and will make such a governing policy of the corporation. Dogwood Preschool? s goal is to serve the children of residents of the greater Richmond area who are interested in the pr

What it reported doing in 2024

Dogwood Preschool Program: Dogwood Preschool was created on November 2, 2020, and had a successful fourth school year that began in September 2024 and ran through May 2025 Dogwood? s fourth year welcomed and served 102 students between 16 months and 5 years old and their families by providing a preschool program that offers each student rich choices and intentional play-based learning. The 102 students filled our 2 and 3 day orange rooms , purple rooms 3 day and 4 day , red room 1, 4 day classroom, and 5-day program green, blue, and yellow rooms, all 5 day for 3 classrooms. As part of our curriculum, we provide our children with movement, music, and catechesis classes that are provided on a weekly basis. Our daily program runs from 9:00 am until 12:00pm with options for early morning drop off and after school lunch bunch. In addition to our traditional preschool program, we offer supplemental programs for families that include hour-long enrichment programs that are lead and customized by our teachers as well as Tother outside groups/organizations.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 92% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% 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. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 75
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 6
  • Sustainability: 49
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 74.3%; rating input score 74
  • Program expense ratio: 81.6%; rating input score 82
  • Fundraising efficiency: $19.55 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 0%; rating input score 0; 5th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 1 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 14
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Fail
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 8.3%; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.81; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.59; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 15% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 35.3% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 15% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 74.3% of revenue deployed · 81.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 0 of 12 board members independent · 1 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $462K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 13 people listed
  • Consistency: 21 of 21 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2022 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • 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.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 0/100.
  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 6 not reported.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 58/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 58/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 36/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 13/100.