Covenant College

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
430719506
IRS 990 coverage
2009–2024
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
Location
Lookout Mountain, GA, USA
Phone
706.820.1560
Rating
80
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Undergraduate College (4-year)
Affiliation
Christianity

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$64,216,350
Expenses
$63,698,057
Assets
$111,491,306
Liabilities
$5,819,548

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

36 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • DR BRAD VOYLES (PRESIDENT)
  • HUGH MESSER (VICE PRESIDENT ACADEMIC AFFAIRS)

Highest reported compensation

  • DR BRAD VOYLES (PRESIDENT): $358,626 total reported compensation
  • MARC ERICKSON (VP FOR DEVELOPMENT/CCF PRES.): $258,448 total reported compensation
  • DR J DEREK HALVORSON (EX. DIR. BROCK-BARNES CENTER FOR LEADERSHIP): $209,194 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

To develop work ethic and time management skills while learning to be a team-player, instilling skills and qualities that reflect the character of Christ in service, labor, and leadership.

What it reported doing in 2024

Academic support: the college works to provide students with academic support at every stage of their covenant education. In addition to highly qualified staff, the covenant library is networked with more than 18,000 other institutions worldwide, providing interlibrary loan access and document delivery services to over 1.3 billion library items. Our library was eleventh in the world to go live with the online computer library center's new cloud-based operating system, web-scale management service. Covenant's writing center is located in the library, providing students one-on-one tutoring for essays, research papers, and any writing-related assignments. The office of academic affairs at covenant works to provide support for deans and faculty members as they seek to provide a rigorous education to covenant students. Covenant's master of education and master of arts in teaching degrees offered by the graduate school of education at covenant provide students with the exceptional opportunity of completing a master's degree in one year. Covenant's maclellan scholars program offers courses designed to encourage critical thinking and develop the skills of potential christian leaders. Students in the program travel internationally while at covenant and demonstrate leadership through student-initiated projects.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 80% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 54% for direct work, and 46% for grants.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 79
  • Transparency & Controls: 71
  • Accountability: 96
  • Sustainability: 50
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 86.8%; rating input score 87
  • Program expense ratio: 87.2%; rating input score 87
  • Fundraising efficiency: $3.05 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 49th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 92.6%; rating input score 93; 42nd 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: 0.8%; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.75; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 2.7%; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 2.6% per year; rating input score 100; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 2.2% per year; rating input score 100; 16th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 3.5% per year; rating input score 100; 24th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 5 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
  • Where the money goes: 86.8% of revenue deployed · 87.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 25 of 27 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $55.6M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $359K · 36 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $5.5M reported
  • Consistency: 43 of 43 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 12 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, executive pay, and related organizations
  • Filing history: 16 filing years from 2009 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 10 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.
  • 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: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 11/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 36/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 59/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 43/100.