Iowa Lakes Electric Cooperative
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 421259366
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Estherville, IA, United States
- Phone
- 800-225-4532
- Rating confidence
- Limited
- Sector
- Public Utilities
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $74,744,531
- Expenses
- $70,970,095
- Assets
- $182,894,180
- Liabilities
- $52,829,509
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
24 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- RYAN CRAIG (PRESIDENT/CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- RYAN CRAIG (PRESIDENT/CEO): $315,472 total reported compensation
- SHELLY TREDWAY (VP OF FINANCE/CFO): $305,005 total reported compensation
- AARON RUSCHY (VP OF OPERATIONS & ENGINEERING): $296,657 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Iowa Lakes Electric Cooperative's mission is to provide safe, reliable, competitively-priced energy and other valuable services to benefit our members, our customers and the communities we serve. Cooperatives are autonomous, self-help organizations controlled by their members. If they enter into agreements with other organizations, including governments, or raise capital from external sources, they do so on terms that ensure democratic control by their members and maintain their cooperative autonomy. Education, Training and Information.PNG Cooperatives provide education and training for their members, elected representatives, managers, and employees so they can contribute effectively to the development of their cooperatives. They inform the general public, particularly young people and opinion leaders, about the nature and benefits of cooperation.
What it reported doing in 2024
Rural electric cooperative - sales of electricity to members.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 93% 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: 83
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 59
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: Limited
- Program expense ratio: Limited
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 68th 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: Missing
- Written employment contract: Pass
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 77th 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: 5%; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.58; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.29; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 3.1%; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: 1.6% per year; rating input score 100; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 2.3% per year; rating input score 100; 17th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: Mission, programs, and operating context captured from the official website.
- Where the money goes: Financial trends and filed revenue, expense, asset, and liability detail
- Governance: 14 of 14 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment
- Leadership: top reported pay $315K · 24 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $1.4M reported
- Consistency: 11 of 11 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes executive pay and related organizations
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 24 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 57/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 36/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 57/100.