HeartLight Center
Legal name: Heartlight Center Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 841577608
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2021–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2017, Form 990-T 2023
- Location
- Denver, CO, US
- Phone
- 720-748-9908
- Rating
- 56
- Verdict
- MIXED
- Rating confidence
- Standard
- Sector
- Education N.E.C.
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $683,127
- Expenses
- $611,458
- Assets
- $493,234
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Jennifer Flaum (Executive Director)
Highest reported compensation
- Jennifer Flaum (Executive Director): $139,169 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
HeartLight Center provides grief support groups, workshops, and educational resources to help individuals navigate loss and bereavement.
What it reported doing in 2025
HeartLight Center offers programming, training, education and coordinated networking opportunities for Professional and volunteer caregivers. In 2025 HeartLight Center hosted industry expert speakers and authors to provide educational programming, accessible to anyone through HeartLight Centers website at no cost to learners and professionals. HeartLight hosted over 20 volunteer and facilitator trainings. In 2025, HeartLight offers internship placements for graduate level social workers, counselors and human service majors hosting more than 15 student interns. HeartLight coordinates networking opportunities for professionals working in end-of-life, death care and bereavement in order to reduce duplication of services and increase access to services for those served by professionals, hosting and coordinating over 15 events.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 94% 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
MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up and program spending has grown recently. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and a relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 46
- Transparency & Controls: 88
- Accountability: 21
- Sustainability: 50
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 48.6%; rating input score 49
- Program expense ratio: 53.6%; rating input score 54
- Fundraising efficiency: $1.97 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 84.6%; rating input score 85; 2nd 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: 0%; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 10.5%; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.81; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 22.8%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 80.3% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 18.7% per year; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 16.6% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 6 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 5 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 48.6% of revenue deployed · 53.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 0 of 11 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $328K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $139K · 11 people listed
- Consistency: 27 of 28 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2021 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 3 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 49/100.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 54/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 6/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 57/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 37/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Schedule G fundraiser detail did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 13/100.