Lakelight Institute

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
931866511
IRS 990 coverage
2023–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Lake Forest, IL, USA
Phone
8474577251
Rating
68
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Christianity

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$450,570
Expenses
$581,482
Assets
$232,766
Liabilities
$2,802

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Ben Dockery (Executive Director)

Highest reported compensation

  • Ben Dockery (Executive Director): $124,647 total reported compensation
  • Glenn Wishnew III (Employee): $55,058 total reported compensation
  • Kei-Lynn Wheaton (Employee): $5,896 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Lakelight Institute equips Christians with timeless wisdom for modern life.

What it reported doing in 2024

Lakelight provides robust biblical training, a thoughtful public Christian witness, and resources to integrate faith and work. Offering classes, events, resources, and a fellows program, Lakelight aims to help Christians discover timeless wisdom for modern life. Lakelight will build biblical literacy among Christians and work with them to integrate the ancient truths of scripture in their day-to-day lives at work amid a fractured and polarized culture.

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 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 a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. A relatively small share of total spending goes to programs and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 62
  • Transparency & Controls: 84
  • Accountability: 77
  • Sustainability: 16
  • Growth: 40

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 73.9%; rating input score 74
  • Program expense ratio: 56.8%; rating input score 57
  • Fundraising efficiency: $4.39 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 90%; rating input score 90; 9th 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 4 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 44
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -29.1%; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.4; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: Limited

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 79% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -27.2% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -43.2% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 73.9% of revenue deployed · 56.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 4 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $330K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $125K · 8 people listed
  • Consistency: 21 of 22 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 2 filing years from 2023 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • 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 — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 57/100.
  • Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 19/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 10/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 20/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 44/100.