Lion Life
Legal name: Lion Life Community Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 832243608
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2024–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2023
- Location
- Holly Springs, GA, US
- Phone
- 6785924422
- Rating
- 77
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Human Services N.E.C.
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $217,739
- Expenses
- $201,612
- Assets
- $69,731
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Brody Smithwick (President, Executive Director)
Highest reported compensation
- Brody Smithwick (President, Executive Director): $76,000 total reported compensation
- Amy Smithwick (Vice Pres, Director of Operations): $46,000 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Lion Life Community, Inc. is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that is overseen by a Board of Directors who have a passion for the betterment of our community through education for all.
What it reported doing in 2025
Our in-jail programs reached over 1,500 individuals. We currently offer eight different educational programs that include General Education Diploma (G.E.D.) Certification, English as A Second Language Course, Continuing Education Preparation, Entrepreneurship, Freedom from Addiction, Music, Creative Writing, and a Literacy Initiative. Our library inside the facility was accessed by 1,316 different people, resulting in over 49,500 hours of reading in 2025. We helped 25 students receive their official General Education Diploma (GED) and 42 others make plans for continued education in our College Workshop. Our Entrepreneurship program helped 67 students complete business plans, understand best financial practices, and learn basic marketing techniques. 211 Creative Writing students wrote multiple full-length novels, plays, and poetry. We helped improve the English speaking skills of 128 students in our ESL Course, a program which received contributions for improvement by an official partnership with the Honors College at Kennesaw State University. Our Freedom from Addiction students have found support through mentorship as they have been equipped to find true lasting freedom in Christ. Through our website, we connect students post-release to other community resources.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 88% 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 - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and program spending has declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 73
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Accountability: 63
- Sustainability: 39
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 79.5%; rating input score 80
- Program expense ratio: 85.9%; rating input score 86
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th 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: 60%; rating input score 60; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 6 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 7.4%; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.35; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 60.5%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -10.9% per year; rating input score 0; 10th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 16.9% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 21.2% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 5 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 79.5% of revenue deployed · 85.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 3 of 5 board members independent · 6 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $173K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $76K · 5 people listed
- Consistency: 23 of 23 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 2 filing years from 2024 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 5 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.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 19/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 52/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 2/100.