Witherspoon Institute Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN: 550835528
IRS 990 coverage: 2012–2025
Forms available: Form 990 2025
Location: Princeton, NJ, USA
Phone: 6096888779
Rating: 78
Verdict: SUPPORTED
Rating confidence: Moderate
Sector: Scholarships, Student Financial Aid Services, Awards

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue: $2,685,620
Expenses: $2,770,695
Assets: $15,367,731
Liabilities: $757,456

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

18 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

Luis Tellez (President)

Highest reported compensation

Russell J Snell (Director of Academic Programs): $281,369 total reported compensation
Kelly Hanlon Muncy (Dir. of Operations): $229,699 total reported compensation
James O'Boyle (Director of Development): $222,117 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Research, education, and public awareness of the political, moral and philosophical principles of free and democratic societies

What it reported doing in 2025

Public Opinion: This program consists primarily of the work of Public Discourse, an online journal located at www.thepublicdiscourse.com. It publishes one short article per weekday by numerous authors on topics of interest to the Institute. Occasionally we also publish longer articles and interviews. Articles are organized around what we consider to be the five pillars of decent and dynamic societies: the dignity of the human person, marriage and the family, the rule of law, higher education and academic research, and business and the market.

Operating model

Revenue model: Donor-supported. 87% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model: Direct operator. The filing allocates 94% 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 - 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 program spending has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

Financial Efficiency: 80
Transparency & Controls: 76
Accountability: 91
Sustainability: 40
Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

Mission deployment rate: 88.1%; rating input score 88
Program expense ratio: 75.7%; rating input score 76
Fundraising efficiency: $15.52 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 14th 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: Pass
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Pass
Foreign activity oversight: Limited
Grant itemization coverage: 97.3%; rating input score 97; 38th percentile among comparable filings
Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

Independent voting board: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 23rd 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: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

Operating margin: -3.2%; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
Total-asset coverage ratio: 5.55; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
Officer compensation ratio: 32.2%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

Program expense growth: -0.6% per year; rating input score 0; 11th percentile among comparable filings
Revenue growth: 0.9% per year; rating input score 100; 11th percentile among comparable filings
Asset growth: 5.6% per year; rating input score 100; 36th percentile among comparable filings

Details

Where the money goes: 88.1% of revenue deployed · 75.7% of spending went to programs
Governance: 11 of 12 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $2.1M in reported program spending
Leadership: top reported pay $281K · 18 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
Consistency: 32 of 33 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
Filing history: 13 filing years from 2012 to 2025
Contacts: How to reach this organization
Money network: 6 filed money-flow records
Related organizations: 2 filed related-organization links
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.

Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 51/100.
High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 18/100.
Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Audit committee oversight not reported.
High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 6/100.
Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.