Flight For Life - ThedaStar
Legal name: Flight for Life Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 990407600
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2023–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Waukesha, WI, USA
- Phone
- 4147785427
- Rating
- 87
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Ambulance, Emergency Medical Transport Services
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $38,828,129
- Expenses
- $36,959,458
- Assets
- $27,341,927
- Liabilities
- $16,213,900
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
4 people listed
People named in this filing
- SCOTT HAWIG (CHAIR)
- SCOTT TURNER (VICE CHAIR)
- MARC CADIEUX (TREASURER)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Flight For Life – ThedaStar will provide safe, high quality, customer-oriented, evidence-based medical transportation, with a commitment to education. Our Vision. Flight For Life – ThedaStar** understands the importance of strong community partnerships, which is why we work closely with our customers to provide safe, high-quality, customer oriented, evidence-based medical transportation. Positive outcomes for patients are best achieved through teamwork. A partnership with your community’s hospital or pre-hospital team is essential in providing continuity of care during a patient’s experience. Medical Team The medical team consists of a Flight Nurse and Flight Paramedic. All medical personnel obtain certifications and advanced...
What it reported doing in 2024
Flight for life program, an emergency helicopter medical transport service transporting patients in need of significant medical care to local hospital emergency rooms.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 90% 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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 82
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 94
- Sustainability: 47
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 90.1%; rating input score 90
- Program expense ratio: 94.7%; rating input score 95
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd 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; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 6 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 86
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 4.8%; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.74; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.59; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 96; 96th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 200% per year; rating input score 100; 100th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 200% per year; rating input score 100; 100th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 200% per year; rating input score 100; 100th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 90.1% of revenue deployed · 94.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 3 of 3 board members independent · 6 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $35M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 4 people listed
- Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $105K reported
- Consistency: 26 of 26 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 2 filing years from 2023 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Related organizations: 2 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Audit committee oversight not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 53/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 26/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 23/100.