Lifeline Education Charter School

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
412064806
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Long Beach, CA, USA
Phone
3106052510
Rating
74
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Charter Schools

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$17,174,568
Expenses
$17,647,880
Assets
$44,687,416
Liabilities
$29,863,911

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

Leadership & pay

6 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Paula Degroat (Executive Director)

Highest reported compensation

  • Paula Degroat (Executive Director): $188,776 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Lifelines mission is to enable at-risk students to become competent contributing members of society equipped with reading, writing, math computational, technological and problem solving skills necessary for success in a rapidly changing world.

What it reported doing in 2024

Primary and Secondary Education

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 95% 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 - 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: 73
  • Transparency & Controls: 66
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 43
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 83.2%; rating input score 83
  • Program expense ratio: 80.9%; rating input score 81
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • 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; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • 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: -2.8%; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.53; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.67; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 1.1%; rating input score 85; 85th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 11.8% per year; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 12.7% per year; rating input score 100; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 20.9% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 83.2% of revenue deployed · 80.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment
  • Leadership: top reported pay $189K · 6 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $2.6M reported
  • Consistency: 22 of 22 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes executive pay
  • Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 21/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 19/100.