World Education Services

Legal name: World Education Services Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
237396384
IRS 990 coverage
2011–2024
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
Location
New York, NY, USA
Phone
2122197307
Rating
78
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
International Academic Exchange

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$139,593,000
Expenses
$98,706,735
Assets
$259,765,506
Liabilities
$34,659,462

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

Leadership & pay

28 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • ESTHER T BENJAMIN (CEO & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
  • PAUL FELTMAN (DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GTB)

Highest reported compensation

  • ESTHER T BENJAMIN (CEO & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $996,526 total reported compensation
  • JOHN VERMAATEN THRU 123124 (CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER): $618,588 total reported compensation
  • CHERYL TOTO (CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER): $550,639 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

World Education Services (WES) is dedicated to fostering systems change to promote educational, economic, and social inclusion for immigrants, refugees, international students, and their communities.

What it reported doing in 2024

Credential evaluation: as a leader in global education for over 50 years, wes has set the standard for international academic credential evaluation, supporting millions of people as they seek to achieve their academic and professional goals. In 2024, wes served more than 475,000 individuals, who brought the organization nearly 620,000 academic credentials for evaluation from almost 23,000 institutions from more than 200 countries and territories around the world. (continued on schedule o).

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 96% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 91% 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. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 68
  • Transparency & Controls: 74
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 75
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 73.6%; rating input score 74
  • Program expense ratio: 80.2%; rating input score 80
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 21st percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Pass
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
    • Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
    • Requires narrative reports: Pass
    • Conducts field audits: Fail
    • May suspend future funding: Fail
    • Requires financial reports: Fail
    • Conducts site visits: Fail
    • Requires grant agreements: Pass
    • May require repayment: Fail
  • Grant itemization coverage: 94.3%; rating input score 94; 26th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • 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: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 29.3%; rating input score 92; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.63; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.13; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 5.9%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 12.4% per year; rating input score 100; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 13.6% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 18.9% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 6 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 3 operating locations identified
  • Where the money goes: 73.6% of revenue deployed · 80.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 15 of 15 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $79.2M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $997K · 28 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $10M reported
  • Consistency: 35 of 36 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes foreign activity, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 13 filing years from 2011 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 53 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 41 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.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight: 5 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 11/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.