Lutheran Elementary School Association
Public records show a registered, tax-exempt organization in good standing.
What it says it does
LESA equips Lutheran schools families and communities with resources to expand Gods Kingdom.
- Income
- $1.4 million
- Spending
- $1.4 million
- Spent on programs
- 79%
- Reserves
- 10.8 months of spending
- Largest source of income
- donations and private grants, 61%
- Employees
- 4
- Volunteers
- 0
- Highest pay
- $118,500, ceo
Source: Form 990 for the year ending June 30, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Financial health
Good: 78 out of 100. Higher than 63% of charities in its peer group (education, $1m to $10m).
Reserves
28 of 35Spendable reserves would cover 10.8 months of spending.
Debt
20 of 20It owes 0% of what it owns.
Living within its means
15 of 15Income exceeded spending by 3% of income.
Income trend
0 of 15Income fell 25% on the year before.
Spending floor
15 of 1579% of spending went to programs and raising each dollar of donations cost 26 cents.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending June 30, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Governance
Strong: 90 out of 100. Higher than 57% of charities in its peer group (education, $1m to $10m).
Independent board
25 of 2511 of 11 voting board members are independent.
Conflict of interest policy
15 of 15Has a written conflict of interest policy.
Whistleblower policy
8 of 8Has a written whistleblower policy.
Record keeping policy
7 of 7Has a written policy on keeping and destroying records.
Board minutes
5 of 5Keeps minutes of board meetings.
Board sees the tax return
0 of 10Did not give the board a copy of this return before filing it.
Pay set independently
5 of 5Sets its chief executive's pay through independent review and comparison.
Independent check of accounts
15 of 15Its accounts were audited by an independent accountant.
No reported misuse
10 of 10Reports no diversion of assets, excess benefits or loans to insiders.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending June 30, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Impact evidence
Describes programs. Its tax return describes what it does but we have found no measurable results in it.
Programs described in its return (4)
- $641,838 spent. Need based tuition assistance representing a meaningful portion of the family tuition responsibility is awarded to make Lutheran Elementary School education in the St. Louis metro community accessible to children from all faith ethnic and economic backgrounds.
- $16,382 spent. Produced and provided professional development programs for educators in member schools delivering roughly 1,900 hours of professional development programming to over 500 educators.
- $7,665 spent. Provided STEM instructional materials to schools to introduce students at every grade level to robotics coding and other STEM skills. LESAs LEGO Lending Library includes roughly 100 kits including Coding Express and STEAM Park Spike Essentials and Spike Prime appropriate for students from Early Childhood through grade eight. LESAs program allows member schools teachers to access kits on a rotating basis helping them to provide hands-on high quality coding engineering and robotics instruction to students aged 2 - 14 years.
- $434,377 spent. Provided services to schools to equip administrators educators and school staff with high quality resources to educate children. Services include joint marketing of member schools through various media platforms professional development to staff in areas of marketing and student retention and recruitment educator access to Colonial Williamsburg Summer Teacher Institute support to maintain National Lutheran School Accreditation providing development grants to schools for specific educator needs maintaining access of a natural gas aggregation program to provide fuel savings for member schools.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending June 30, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Legitimacy checks
Is it registered with the IRS? Passed.
Listed in the IRS master file of tax-exempt organizations as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Has the IRS revoked its tax-exempt status? Passed.
Not on the IRS automatic revocation list.
Source: Automatic revocation of exemption list, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Are donations tax-deductible? Passed.
On the IRS list of organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.
Source: Publication 78 data: organizations eligible for tax-deductible contributions, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Is it keeping up with its IRS filings? Passed.
Most recent return on file covers the year ending June 2025.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
How long has it been tax-exempt? Passed.
Recognized by the IRS since May 2000.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Is it in good standing with state regulators? Passed.
Not on California's list of charities barred from soliciting. Other states are not yet checked.
Source: May Not Operate or Solicit for Charitable Purposes list, California Attorney General, Registry of Charities and Fundraisers, file dated October 21, 2026.
Ratings and checks are our reading of public records, using the published method. They are not a statement about anyone's honesty. If you work for this organization, you can send corrections or results, confirm you want gifts through Veridonate, or ask to be removed from giving.