Knoxville Leadership Foundation (KLF)
Legal name: Knoxville Leadership Foundation Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 621574495
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Jun 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Knoxville, TN, USA
- Phone
- 865.524.2774
- Rating
- 71
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Religious Printing, Publishing
- Affiliation
- Religious (unspecified)
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $18,090,002
- Expenses
- $6,667,936
- Assets
- $22,700,345
- Liabilities
- $6,184,852
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
18 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- CHRIS MARTIN (PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- CHRIS MARTIN (PRESIDENT): $266,196 total reported compensation
- CHANDLER WILSON (HIGHLY COMPENSATED EMPLOYE): $160,718 total reported compensation
- DANIEL MYERS (HIGHLY COMPENSATED EMPLOYE): $129,788 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Knoxville Leadership Foundation (KLF) serves the Knoxville area by connecting communities of resource with communities of need, while reconciling people to Jesus Christ and to each other. OUR VISION. We value churches and communities working together to see neighborhoods thrive. We believe that a life in Christ provides the platform by which individuals in the city will find hope. But without the development of the individual in other areas, the urban dweller is unprepared to face the challenges of their life. We value the church working together with development efforts in neighborhoods. Change will take place one person at a time, one family at a time, one neighborhood at a time. We value relationships and the long-term process.
What it reported doing in 2025
Workforce development knoxworx is a workforce development system that focuses on an individual by creating a custom designed employment process. We assess participants, designing a pathway that incorporates their specific needs as we walk toward sustainable employment. Knoxworx serves at-risk young adults / adults that are justice system involved, high school dropouts, low-income or transitioning back into the community from either jail or prison. In 2025, 249 participants received education and career support services and 222 participants were assisted with job services. Our youthbuild program trained 48 participants in hbi onstruction training or construction options.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 60% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- 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 - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 51
- Transparency & Controls: 74
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 73
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 28.9%; rating input score 29
- Program expense ratio: 78.7%; rating input score 79
- Fundraising efficiency: $48.15 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 8 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: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 63.1%; rating input score 94; 94th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.4; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.27; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 10.1%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 16.6% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 19.6% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 18.6% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 28.9% of revenue deployed · 78.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 12 of 12 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 5 filed program accomplishments · $5.2M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $266K · 18 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 38 of 38 current checks pass
- Schedules: 9 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2011 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 4 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 7 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.
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 29/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 24/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 43/100.