East Lake Initiative
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 271941412
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2015–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2013, Form 990-N 2014
- Location
- Birmingham, AL, USA
- Phone
- 2053252237
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Housing Support
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,535,158
- Expenses
- $1,255,060
- Assets
- $2,583,126
- Liabilities
- $3,031
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
13 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- PAMELA BATES (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- MYRON THOMAS (CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER): $93,746 total reported compensation
- PAMELA BATES (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $62,017 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Our mission is to offer family-centered coaching and foster thriving communities. Our core values are compassion, integrity, unity, and grit. Our mission and values guide everything we do, from how we design programs to how we have conversations. At eli thrive, we see every participant as resilient and capable of thriving. Our goal is to empower families toward self-sufficiency through kindness, compassion, and accountability. We recognize the difference between enabling and empowering. Enabling focuses on solving problems for someone, often creating dependence. Empowering, on the other hand, means equipping families with tools, confidence, and support so they can solve challenges themselves and build lasting independence. We believe that when families thrive, communities thrive. And we believe that as a staff and team, we must live out those values every day.
What it reported doing in 2025
Housing - eli is helping to bring back pride in the neighborhood through house to home transformations. By acquiring distressed properties and renovating them to be quality homes eli is able to offer tenants safe and secure housing options. Residents enter into a mentoring relationship that prepares them to be homeowners. The mentorship includes financial counceling and other types of support as they move towards successful home ownership. Through eli's launch homeownership program families can move into an eli owned apartment for 12 months while they begin preparing for the road to homeownership.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 94% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 97% 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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 73
- Transparency & Controls: 94
- Accountability: 91
- Sustainability: 64
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 68.4%; rating input score 68
- Program expense ratio: 77.3%; rating input score 77
- Fundraising efficiency: $92.78 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 84; 84th 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- 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: 18.2%; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.06; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 12.4%; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 26.5% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 21.7% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 17.6% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 68.4% of revenue deployed · 77.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $970K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $94K · 13 people listed
- Consistency: 27 of 27 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 11 filing years from 2015 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- 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.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 9 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 31/100.