Chelco
Legal name: Choctawhatchee Electric Cooperative Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 590192831
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Defuniak Springs, FL, USA
- Phone
- 8508922111
- Rating confidence
- Limited
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $182,276,805
- Expenses
- $166,188,168
- Assets
- $452,206,017
- Liabilities
- $297,036,940
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
16 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- BRADY BEARDEN (VICE PRESIDENT)
- GERALD EDMONDSON (PRESIDENT)
- STEPHEN T RHODES (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER)
Highest reported compensation
- STEPHEN T RHODES (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER): $948,220 total reported compensation
- JONATHAN M AVERY (SENIOR VP OF E&O): $325,082 total reported compensation
- EMILY E COWAN (VP OF MEMBER SVCS): $306,485 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To provide electric service to members in parts of holmes, okaloosa, santa rosa, & walton counties.
Choctawhatchee Electric Cooperative (CHELCO) is a not-for-profit electric distribution cooperative serving member-owners in Northwest Florida. Established in 1941, CHELCO purchases wholesale power from PowerSouth, a generation and transmission cooperative, and delivers electricity to residential, commercial, and industrial members across its service area. As a member-owned cooperative, any margins are allocated or returned to members through capital credits, overseen by a democratically-elected Board of Trustees. CHELCO is part of the Touchstone Energy network, upholding core values of integrity, accountability, innovation, and commitment to community.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 99% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.
The verdict
- The available evidence is not sufficient to produce an overall rating for this filing. This is not a warning sign.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: NotEnoughData
- Transparency & Controls: 64
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 61
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: Limited
- Program expense ratio: Limited
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 10th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 8.8%; rating input score 9; 7th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 8.8%; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.72; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.66; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 1.7%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: 8.3% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 8% per year; rating input score 100; 57th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 12 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: Financial trends and filed revenue, expense, asset, and liability detail
- Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment
- Leadership: top reported pay $948K · 16 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $18.2M reported
- Consistency: 13 of 14 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes grants, executive pay, and related organizations
- Filing history: 16 filing years from 2010 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 17 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 3 filed related-organization links
- 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 9/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 26/100.