Life Christian Academy
Legal name: Life Christian Academy Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 461892329
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2014–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- White House, TN, USA
- Phone
- (615) 719-1146
- Rating
- 75
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Elementary, Secondary Education, K - 12
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,917,961
- Expenses
- $1,994,996
- Assets
- $1,271,919
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
4 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- BETH JOHNSTONE (PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- BETH JOHNSTONE (PRESIDENT): $94,335 total reported compensation
- KIM BATEY (SECRETARY): $64,228 total reported compensation
- CINDY HENDRICKSON (DIRECTOR): $5,000 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The mission of Life Christian Academy is to offer Christ-based care and education for young children ages six-weeks of age through 5th grade.
What it reported doing in 2024
Life christian academy provides christian-based care and education for children ages 6 weeks to 5th grade. It is a private, christian preschool and school.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 95% 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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 68
- Transparency & Controls: 90
- Accountability: 72
- Sustainability: 36
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 77.1%; rating input score 77
- Program expense ratio: 75.2%; rating input score 75
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 3 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 33
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- 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: -4%; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.64; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 8.4%; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 13% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 15.6% per year; rating input score 100; 79th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 25.6% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 4 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 77.1% of revenue deployed · 75.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 3 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $1.5M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $94K · 4 people listed
- Consistency: 26 of 26 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 10 filing years from 2014 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 4 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.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 8 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 26/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 29/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 42/100.