The Nest School
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 814142892
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2017–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2016
- Location
- Santa Monica, CA, US
- Phone
- 310-734-0305
- Rating
- 67
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Elementary, Secondary Education, K - 12
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $2,741,164
- Expenses
- $1,036,340
- Assets
- $7,991,975
- Liabilities
- $2,786,746
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- TARA R RUBIN (PRESIDENT & DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- TARA R RUBIN (PRESIDENT & DIRECTOR): $151,624 total reported compensation
- OMID KHEILTASH (CO-DIRECTOR & SECRETARY): $98,552 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 Nest School provides a nurturing, intentional, and joyful early childhood Montessori experience, emphasizing each child's cognitive, social/emotional, and physical development.
What it reported doing in 2024
The nest school is a non-profit montessori preschool serving children aged 2 years 6 months to 5 years in an intimate residential setting. Technically classified as a family child care home, the nest is a small-by-design program that provides quality individualized early childhood instruction for its 20 children. The offering includes a half day morning program, a half day afternoon program, and a full day program reserved for children in their final year of preschool.the nest's mission is to support each individual child in building a foundation for lifelong learning and believe in a wholistic, developmentally appropriate, and child centric approach that emphasizes each student's cognitive, social/emotional, and physical development. Educators and families work together to foster connections between home and school. Involvement is intentional, communication is open and ample, and goals are shared.the school completed its 7th year, maintaining steady enrollment figures, robust fundraising thanks to the generosity of its school community, and the same employees since the school inception. In addition to the enrichment offerings of music, pe, yoga, and art, the school also added a once a week martial arts class.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 81% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- 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 - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 47
- Transparency & Controls: 84
- Accountability: 72
- Sustainability: 75
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 27.3%; rating input score 27
- Program expense ratio: 68.6%; rating input score 69
- Fundraising efficiency: $78.43 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 83.3%; rating input score 83; 16th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 5 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 56
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Fail
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 62.2%; rating input score 95; 95th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 7.71; rating input score 89; 89th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.35; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 24.1%; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 14% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 23.9% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 32.9% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 4 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 27.3% of revenue deployed · 68.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 5 of 6 board members independent · 5 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $710K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $152K · 8 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $784K reported
- Consistency: 27 of 27 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 7 filing years from 2017 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 4 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.
- 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: Mission deployment rate scored 27/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 9 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 9/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 30/100.