Vermont Student Development Fund Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 030367034
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Winooski, VT, USA
- Phone
- 8026543714
- Rating
- 86
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Scholarships, Student Financial Aid Services, Awards
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $17,494,764
- Expenses
- $16,807,150
- Assets
- $24,646,852
- Liabilities
- $10,867,277
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
17 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Scott A Giles (President and CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- Scott A Giles (President and CEO): $412,495 total reported compensation
- Patrick J Leduc (VP & COO): $325,209 total reported compensation
- Thomas A Little (VP & General Counsel): $304,682 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 Vermont Scholarship Fund is a 501(c)(3) charitable affiliate of the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation (VSAC). Our mission is to provide scholarships to Vermonters through gifts and grants from the State of Vermont, Federal agencies, individual donors and philanthropic sources. Together with our supporters we make it possible for more people to aim higher, go further, and build something better for themselves, their families, and the community. We partner closely with our supporters to create scholarship funds that reflect mission and goals to open doors to education for others. We administer all scholarships through VSAC, with ongoing support that makes managing scholarships efficient. In FY25, VSAC awarded about 16.8 million in scholarships through 150 award programs to 4,024 Vermonters.
What it reported doing in 2024
Scholarships were awarded and disbursed to 4,024 students to support their pursuit of education.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 73% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- Distribution model
- Cannot be determined from the filing. The program-spending lines do not add up, so the filing cannot show reliably whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.
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 expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 88
- Transparency & Controls: 83
- Accountability: 91
- Sustainability: 52
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 98.8%; rating input score 99
- Program expense ratio: 99.9%; rating input score 100
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
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: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Pass
- 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- 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: 3.9%; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.47; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.44; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 1.5%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 11.3% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 8.4% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 8% per year; rating input score 100; 55th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 98.8% of revenue deployed · 99.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $16.8M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $412K · 17 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 19 of 20 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
- 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.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 9 not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 50/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 50/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 33/100.