The Teaching Well Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
833026062
IRS 990 coverage
2019–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Oakland, CA, USA
Phone
3233976224
Rating
71
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Parent/Teacher Group

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$3,791,954
Expenses
$2,373,024
Assets
$3,951,019
Liabilities
$137,958

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

Leadership & pay

14 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Lisa Lasky (Board President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Lindsey Fuller (Executive Dir.): $170,817 total reported compensation
  • Marisol Pineda Conde (Deputy Director): $156,165 total reported compensation
  • Rebecca Bernard (Dir. of Innovation): $140,960 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 teaching well empowers school systems to more effectively support, retain and leverage the brilliance of their educators. In partnership, we heal adult culture by providing tools for healthy dialogue, emotional regulation and mindful stress resilience.

What it reported doing in 2024

School Contracts: The Teaching Well forms partnerships with school communities, sometimes across multiple years, and provides a variety of individual, interpersonal, and systems-level interventions, including:1. Professional development around areas like stress resilience, managing vicarious trauma, healthy communication, and financial wellness,2. One on one mindful mentoring sessions with teachers to turn these concepts into habits,3. School site research to provide a landscape analysis around campus sustainability, and4. Executive-level leadership coaching to help administrators build healthy school systems informed by teacher voice.In 2024-25, we served a total of 119 schools and 16 school districts across the nation with our signature coaching and training model, and secured a total of $1.1M in contract revenue from these site partners. Our partner sites have seen an average 85% of educators retained at their school site and many report significant changes in wellness habits. Increased retention as a result of better working conditions created savings of almost $5.6 million for schools and districts.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 70% 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 fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 51
  • Transparency & Controls: 74
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 67
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 44.4%; rating input score 44
  • Program expense ratio: 70.9%; rating input score 71
  • Fundraising efficiency: $6.92 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • 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: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • 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: 37.4%; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.66; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 75; 75th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 24.8%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 31.5% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 28.1% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 33.8% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 44.4% of revenue deployed · 70.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $1.7M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $171K · 14 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2019 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.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 44/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 26/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 55/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 8/100.