Candlelight Christian Academy
Legal name: Candlelight Christian Academy Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 810563798
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Lake Wales, FL, US
- Phone
- (863) 676-0049
- Rating
- 79
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Elementary, Secondary Education, K - 12
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,613,542
- Expenses
- $1,735,223
- Assets
- $674,369
- Liabilities
- $339,334
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
3 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- PATRICIA D WISEMAN (PRESIDENT)
- KAREN S IRACE (VICE-PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- PATRICIA D WISEMAN (PRESIDENT): $51,917 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
At Candlelight we believe that to truly educate a child is to educate the whole child. The Mission of Candlelight Christian Academy is to develop academically and socially responsible individuals through a project-based environment, accommodating the various learning styles of each student. Candlelight prides itself on its committed, professional, and truly caring faculty. All of our faculty and staff are degreed, and many are certified in their area of expertise. If not, they are expected to be working towards certification. In addition, our staff have demonstrated a relationship with Christ and are also expected to be working on that relationship on the daily basis. This is vital as we develop our students academically and spiritually. Candlelight is a project-based learning community where students learn from their teachers, as well as from each other. Our pedagogy provides a...
What it reported doing in 2025
Operation of private school serving children in grades k - 12. Enrollment is approximately 210 students for the 2025-2026 academic year.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 100% 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
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 expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 89
- Transparency & Controls: 90
- Accountability: 55
- Sustainability: 21
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
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: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 66.7%; rating input score 67; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -7.5%; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.39; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.5; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 3%; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 10% per year; rating input score 100; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 6.1% per year; rating input score 100; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -1.7% per year; rating input score 0; 11th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 2 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 2 of 3 board members independent · 3 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.7M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $52K · 3 people listed
- Consistency: 22 of 22 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules
- Filing history: 6 filing years from 2020 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 7 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 16/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 20/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 12/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 53/100.