Read the school before you take the job.
Nine years of verified IRS Form 990 financials, the local market, a same-size peer view, and five interview-ready questions drawn from the school’s own filings — done in a weekend, before the campus visit.
$250 a year, or $100 the first year for the founding 100. Cancel anytime from your account.
Every advisor in a school search works for the school. HiveCheck works for you.
Buying a house, you hire your own inspector. The realtor is capable and works for the seller; that’s the arrangement, so you bring in someone who works for you. An independent-school search runs the same way.
The consultant, the sitting Head, the board chair are excellent at what they do, and the school is paying them. HiveCheck is the diligence layer on the candidate’s side of the table — the same public filings any of them could pull, joined into one report before your first campus visit.
No proprietary data. No scraped material. Nine years of federally filed IRS Form 990s, joined to the local market and a same-size peer cohort, and read from the candidate’s seat.
Three steps. A weekend of homework. Walk in prepared.
Pick the school.
Search any of the 1,620 schools in coverage — by name, city, or state. Open the full ten-panel report the moment your shortlist firms up.
Read the report and the five questions.
Nine years of the school’s own IRS Form 990, a NACUBO Composite Financial Index score, a same-size peer cohort you can recut, the local market context, and five interview-ready questions drawn from the filings — each anchored to a specific number.
Walk in prepared.
The campus visit stops being an audition and starts being a conversation. You’ve read the numbers the search committee reads. You ask the question that shows it.
Ten panels. One school. Plus the five questions.
- PANEL 01 · FINANCIAL HEALTHNine years of IRS 990: revenue, expenses, endowment, operating margin, comp ratio, tuition dependency. A NACUBO Composite Financial Index score, presented alongside the nine-year filing series.
- PANEL 02 · PEER COMPARISONSame-size, same-region peers. Percentile per metric against peer p25 / p50 / p75 / p90, with the peer count disclosed. Recut the cohort inside the report.
- PANEL 03 · COMMUNITY DEMOGRAPHICSThe area around the school: population trend, household income, K-12 cohort size, education attainment. ZCTA-grain demographics on the 45-minute drive-time catchment.
- PANEL 04 · PAYING CAPACITYCan families in the school’s real draw area afford tuition. School’s 990-derived tuition against the population-weighted median household income across its ~45-minute catchment, with a plain verdict.
- PANEL 05 · FUNDRAISING PROFILEWhat the school itself reports raising, from its own 990 (contributions and grants, averaged), plus a state scholarship tax-credit lever where the state offers one, plus the local giving climate as context.
- PANEL 06 · COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPESaturation and concentration in the catchment: independent-school density by grade band, public and charter alternatives, and state-level ESA / voucher status.
- PANEL 07 · ENROLLMENT DEMAND990 tuition-revenue trend as the enrollment spine, with a county-level births feed showing the incoming K cohort pipeline.
- PANEL 08 · LOCAL ECONOMYState labor market: the unemployment rate and the year-over-year employment trend, plus a county-level personal-income read.
- PANEL 09 · LEADERSHIP & GOVERNANCESchedule J head-of-school and top-comp roles (individual names withheld by policy), plus Schedule L related-party disclosures and Schedule O governance notes.
- PANEL 10 · QUESTIONS TO ASKEvery report closes with five questions the candidate can credibly ask the search committee, generated from anomalies in that school’s own 990 filings and each anchored to a specific number. It’s the piece finalists tend to remember — the read that shows the candidate has read the school, not skimmed it.
What candidates ask before they subscribe.
What does it cost?
$250 a year for an individual subscription, or $100 the first year for the founding 100. Cancel anytime from your account — you keep access through the period you have paid for.
How fresh is the data? What are the sources?
All public sources. IRS Form 990s through FY2024 for most schools (the IRS lag is real and we surface it on every report), U.S. Census ACS5, U.S. BLS at state level, BEA county-level personal income, HUD Fair Market Rent. Every metric on every page links back to the source.
Is my search visible to anyone?
No. HiveCheck does not share candidate data with the schools you read or the firms placing them. Your account is yours; which schools you look at is yours.
What are the five interview questions?
Every report closes with five questions a candidate can credibly ask the search committee. Each is generated from anomalies in that school’s own 990 filings, and each is anchored to a specific number. They aren’t a script — they’re the piece a finalist uses to show the committee they’ve read the school, not skimmed it.
Can I preview a school before I subscribe?
Yes. Every school has a free preview — identity, the latest revenue and expense line, and one peer chart. The full paid report is one click from there.
A weekend of homework. The rest of the search runs differently.
Read the school’s nine years of filings, the market it sits in, and the peer cohort a board would name. Walk into the campus visit having done the same work the committee did.