The Torah School of Greater Washington Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 521874788
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Jun 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Silver Spring, MD, USA
- Phone
- 3019628003
- Rating
- 83
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Elementary, Secondary Education, K - 12
- Affiliation
- Judaism
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $4,613,203
- Expenses
- $5,214,796
- Assets
- $5,190,165
- Liabilities
- $1,740,272
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
9 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JOEY SCHMERLING (PRESIDENT)
People named in this filing
- RACHEL BURNHAM (DIRECTOR)
- SARAH DOLLMAN (DIRECTOR)
- BAYLA GOODMAN (DIRECTOR)
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
At the Torah School of Greater Washington, we strive to nurture and develop each child academically, socially, and spiritually. Our mission is to cultivate a love for Torah, Judaism, and Eretz Yisrael and foster excitement for learning in each student. The Torah School of Greater Washington is a Torah Umesorah affiliate, founded to serve families from all segments of the Greater Washington community. We welcome all children of the Jewish faith, as defined by Halachah, without regard to the affiliation, background, or degree of religious practice in the home. We are open to students, faculty, and administrative staff of any race, color, and national or ethnic origin. []( Our Mission. Since the Torah School was established in 1994, we have grown from 82 students to almost 385 students from kindergarten through grade six, serving families throughout the Washington metropolitan area. In...
What it reported doing in 2024
Maintaining and operating the school as described in the organization's primary exempt purpose.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 69% 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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 93
- Transparency & Controls: 85
- Accountability: 70
- Sustainability: 30
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 95.7%; rating input score 96
- Fundraising efficiency: $14.68 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 93.8%; rating input score 94; 20th 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 2 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 29
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- 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: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -13%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.34; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 0.7% per year; rating input score 100; 16th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 2.7% per year; rating input score 100; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 14.4% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: Mission, programs, and operating context captured from the official website.
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 95.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 2 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $5M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 9 people listed
- Consistency: 26 of 27 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2011 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- 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: Governance controls: 4 of 6 not reported.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 50/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 11/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule D land buildings reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 37/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 31/100.