Bethel Community
Legal name: Bethel Lutheran Home
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 460259554
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Madison, South Dakota, United States
- Phone
- 605-256-4539
- Rating
- 81
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Supportive Housing for Older Adults
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $6,850,199
- Expenses
- $7,178,799
- Assets
- $8,078,914
- Liabilities
- $5,055,841
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
15 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JACKIE VOELKER (PRESIDENT)
- KARL BREDDIN (VICE PRESIDENT)
- JEREMIAH SCHNEIDER (ADMINISTRATOR/CEO (TERM MARCH 2025))
- GENE WOCKENFUSS (ADMINISTRATOR/CEO (BEG. MARCH 2025))
Highest reported compensation
- STACY ULWELLING (STAFFING COORDINATOR): $134,487 total reported compensation
- JEREMIAH SCHNEIDER (ADMINISTRATOR/CEO (TERM MARCH 2025)): $98,899 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
_Sharing Christ Through Caring Service_ At Bethel, we’re dedicated to providing compassionate, Christ-centered care that supports the best possible quality of life in a changing world. We warmly welcome residents of all faith backgrounds and strive to create a place where everyone feels at home. At Bethel, we’re dedicated to providing compassionate, Christ-centered care that supports the best possible quality of life in a changing world. Our goal is to offer a comfortable, supportive community where people can age in place with confidence, knowing their needs will continue to be met as their level of care changes over time. _Our sponsor congregations_.
What it reported doing in 2024
Bethel lutheran home operates a skilled/sub-acute care nursing home that consists of 59 beds, all of which are medicaid and medicare certified. In addition, the organization has a 16-unit congregate housing addition, a 16-bed assisted living center, 4 cottage homes, and 6 patio homes. During fy 2025, bethel lutheran home had 19,498 long-term care nursing home days and 4,210 assisted living days.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 99% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- 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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 72
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 31
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 81%; rating input score 81
- Program expense ratio: 77.7%; rating input score 78
- Fundraising efficiency: $1.87 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -4.8%; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.13; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.63; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 3.3%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 1.8% per year; rating input score 100; 21st percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 3% per year; rating input score 100; 27th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 4.2% per year; rating input score 100; 30th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 81% of revenue deployed · 77.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 12 of 12 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $5.6M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $134K · 15 people listed
- Highest-paid contractors: 2 contractors listed · $525K reported
- Consistency: 33 of 33 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 5/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 20/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 41/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 16/100.