Is George Washington University Efficient?

This page answers a common question about U.S. nonprofit financial efficiency: Is George Washington University Efficient?. The answer below pulls directly from IRS Form 990 filings — the public-disclosure document every U.S. tax-exempt organization must file annually — and the LakeQuality efficiency rubric that combines program-spending, executive-compensation, and financial-stability factors into a single grade. Why this matters: every U.S. taxpayer subsidizes the nonprofit sector indirectly — donations are tax-deductible, nonprofit income is exempt, and many nonprofit employees benefit from sector-specific tax provisions. The public-disclosure regime exists specifically to give donors and policy-makers the data they need to judge whether the subsidy is well-spent on a given organization.

The detailed answer below uses the actual Form 990 numbers, explains how to read them, and translates the technical accounting into the donor-relevant version of the question.