Maxwell Leadership Foundation

Legal name: Maxwell Leadership Foundation Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
821614152
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2024
Official website data refreshed
Jul 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2019
Location
Duluth, GA, USA
Phone
4703363570
Rating
78
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Standard
Sector
International Agricultural Development

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$10,273,228
Expenses
$12,403,684
Assets
$1,796,357
Liabilities
$1,363,862

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

Leadership & pay

16 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • J Mark Cole (CEO / President / Board Member)
  • John Gregory Steely (Executive Vice President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Tim Elmore (Leadership Expert / Board Member): $289,755 total reported compensation
  • John Griffin (Program Director): $183,971 total reported compensation
  • John Gregory Steely (Executive Vice President): $183,082 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Maxwell Leadership Foundation partners with governments, schools, and communities to embed values-based leadership at every level — because when one person decides to lead with character, the ripple can outlast any government and outlive any generation.

What it reported doing in 2024

Individual Transformation: We utilize value-based roundtables from our founder John Maxwell to transform hundreds of thousands of people in the community. Change Your World is a program developed out of John Maxwell and Rob Hoskins' book by the same title. The program takes users on a journey through values-based leadership curriculum, with the goal of equipping people as leaders with good values and a heart for intentionally making a difference in their world. iLead is our peer-to-peer values-based, people-centric leadership development content designed specifically for students. Since its launch in 2018, iLead has provided children and youth in 72+ countries with an opportunity to explore the power of their choices, actions and influence to make their world better and brighter.

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 80% 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. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 89
  • Transparency & Controls: 74
  • Accountability: 76
  • Sustainability: 8
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 87.5%; rating input score 88
  • Fundraising efficiency: $10.91 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd 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: 2 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 25
    • Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
    • Requires narrative reports: Fail
    • Conducts field audits: Fail
    • May suspend future funding: Fail
    • Requires financial reports: Fail
    • Conducts site visits: Pass
    • Requires grant agreements: Fail
    • May require repayment: Fail
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 81.8%; rating input score 82; 16th 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: 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: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -20.7%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.14; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.76; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 8.2%; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 23.5% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 21.3% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 10.8% per year; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 3 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 87.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 9 of 11 board members independent · 6 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $10.9M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $290K · 16 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $780K reported
  • Consistency: 40 of 40 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 10 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 9 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 3 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.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight: 6 of 8 not reported.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 9 not reported.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 41/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 5/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 3/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 15/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 28/100.