517 Ministries

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
880611164
IRS 990 coverage
2024–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2023, Form 990-N 2023
Location
Tellico Plains, TN, USA
Rating
75
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Temporary Housing
Affiliation
Christianity

Reported finances

Revenue
$230,307
Expenses
$207,925
Assets
$113,106
Liabilities
$2,340

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

Leadership & pay

6 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • WILLIAM LEONARD (PRESIDENT)

People named in this filing

  • CARRIE FREEMAN (BOARD MEMBER)
  • DARBY FRERICHS (BOARD MEMBER)
  • ZACHARY HITSON (ADVISOR)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

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

Overview

Mission

To assist people in re-entering the community after overcoming addiction, incarceration, homelessness, and other life-challenging situations by providing a supportive and structured community environment and resources that encourage sober living, community involvement, home stability, and commitment to a local body of christian believers.

What it reported doing in 2025

We opened a residential addicion recovery program that provided 51 men with a safe environment to experience 2470 collective days of sobriety. This program has the capacity to house up to 18 men at one time. We hosted 4 recovery in the park events, reaching and feeding an average of 204 people per event. We helped approximately 150 people and organizations with various donations of money and service. And we operated celebrate recovery tellico plains, which averaged an attendance of 50 people per meeting. We partnered with 11 different churches who helped to provide worship and meal services.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 63% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% 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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 75
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 54
  • Sustainability: 46
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 80.6%; rating input score 81
  • Program expense ratio: 89.3%; rating input score 89
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 83.3%; rating input score 83; 24th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 1 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 14
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 9.7%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.54; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 26% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 48% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 56.4% per year; rating input score 100; 96th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 80.6% of revenue deployed · 89.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 6 board members independent · 1 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $186K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 6 people listed
  • Consistency: 25 of 25 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 2 filing years from 2024 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • 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.

  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 6 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 26/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 56/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 34/100.