The Waverly School
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 954869859
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2014–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Pasadena, CA, US
- Phone
- 626-792-5940
- Rating
- 81
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Primary, Elementary Schools
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $12,273,832
- Expenses
- $12,854,238
- Assets
- $17,855,760
- Liabilities
- $12,182,094
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
25 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- CLARKE WEATHERSPOON (HEAD OF SCHOOL): $332,223 total reported compensation
- MOLLY GELLER (HEAD OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL): $215,706 total reported compensation
- JULI KHOE (DIRECTOR OF FINANCE AND OPERATIONS): $179,724 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 Waverly School is a progressive, independent school in Pasadena, California, serving students from preschool through high school. The school's mission is to foster curiosity, creativity, and a love of learning through a play-based preschool program and a challenging, engaging curriculum that integrates social, physical, aesthetic, and ethical development. Students are encouraged to be actively involved in their education, take responsibility for their growth, and base learning on life experiences.
What it reported doing in 2024
The waverly school is a non-profit, educational institution, serving children from preschool through twelfth grade. The current whole school enrollment is 320 students. Families who chose the waverly school come from diverse backgrounds in terms of their ethnicity, culture, socioeconomic status, profession and educational attainment level.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 92% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 76% for direct work, and 24% for grants.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 84
- Transparency & Controls: 83
- Accountability: 79
- Sustainability: 26
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 95.3%; rating input score 95
- Program expense ratio: 90.9%; rating input score 91
- Fundraising efficiency: $2.32 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Compensation committee: Pass
- 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 72.2%; rating input score 72; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -4.7%; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.39; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.68; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 10.4%; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 6.9% per year; rating input score 100; 55th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 7.1% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 12.3% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 5 programs and campaigns described on the official site
- Where the money goes: 95.3% of revenue deployed · 90.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 13 of 18 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $11.7M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $332K · 25 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 2 contractors listed · $466K reported
- Consistency: 33 of 33 current checks pass
- Schedules: 9 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 11 filing years from 2014 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 7 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 8/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 17/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 48/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 18/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 19/100.