Kentucky Underground Protection Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
611121421
IRS 990 coverage
2012–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Louisville, KY, USA
Phone
5024423160
Rating
70
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$4,227,168
Expenses
$3,913,375
Assets
$8,989,416
Liabilities
$162,598

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

20 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • TIM VAUGHN (EXECUTIVE DI): $163,964 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

To promote safety for underground excavating. To provide a communication link between excavators and operators of underground utilities.

What it reported doing in 2025

Kentucky 811 is a non-profit corporation made up of member operators of underground facilities in Kentucky, designed to reduce the number of damages to buried utilities and promote safe digging state-wide. This free service helps prevent damage incidents which can result in millions of dollars in property damage, the interruption of utility service, personal injuries and even loss of life. Kentuckys call before you dig law requires everyone who digs to contact Kentucky 811 at least two full business days before starting a project. Upon receipt of a ticket, Kentucky 811 notifies our member utilities or their contract locators to request that they mark their buried utility lines in the area of the dig site. Our story digging near buried utilities can be expensive and dangerous, and before Kentucky 811 was formed in 1987, the process for requesting that the approximate location of buried utilities be marked with flags or paint was cumbersome and involved calling multiple utilities directly. To address this issue, the owners and operators of utilities in Kentucky founded the states one-call center in 1987 under the name of Kentucky underground protection, inc. The one-call center currently operates with hundreds of member utilities. Today, Kentucky 811 is composed of industry leaders who specialize in damage prevention. If you are a utility operating in Kentucky and are not yet a member of Kentucky 811.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 93% 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

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 80
  • Transparency & Controls: 60
  • Accountability: 60
  • Sustainability: 57
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 85%; rating input score 85
  • Program expense ratio: 98.3%; rating input score 98
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Missing
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 95%; rating input score 95; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 1 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 12
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 7.4%; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.3; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 4.2%; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 7.7% per year; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 6.4% per year; rating input score 100; 47th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 11.7% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 85% of revenue deployed · 98.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 19 of 20 board members independent · 1 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments
  • Leadership: top reported pay $164K · 20 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 30 of 30 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes executive pay
  • Filing history: 14 filing years from 2012 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 6 of 7 not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 49/100.