Real Life Skills Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
472171861
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2014–2025
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2025
Location
San Diego, CA, USA
Phone
6199211139
Rating
96
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Human Service Organizations

Reported finances

Revenue
$34,500
Expenses
$55,300
Assets
$43,312
Liabilities
$0

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

6 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Richard Karlson (President)
  • James Robins (Executive Director, Program Director & Facilitator)

People named in this filing

  • Richard Karlson (President)
  • Susan Zlaket (Secretary)
  • James Robins (Executive Director, Program Director & Facilitator)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Our purpose is to restore hope to those dealing with life challenges, resurrect lost self-esteem, and re-ignite the desire to become the best version of themselves. We do this by teaching a self-improvement program in eight dynamic one hour classes on the power of thinking and provide a clear understanding of how life choices are made. This introduces a new valuable education experience, utilizing the cognitive behavior theory approach for those in need focused on developing a new mindset that can provide a path to a better life. Our strategic focus is directed to help agencies that serve the homeless, the homeless in transition, parolees, drug & alcohol recovery, transitional youth, and low -income families seeking better job opportunities.

What it reported doing in 2025

2025 Accomplishments 1.Introduced a new Model to scale real life skills concepts to reach a larger audience with agencies in the community. It is a Train-the Trainer Model designed for community organizations. Rather than relying only on RealLife Skills staff to teach every class, the agencies would equip trusted voices inside partner agencies to teach the curriculum in-house. RLS would provide teaching skills and curriculum to certify trainers With certification the concepts would be taught to staff and to those they serve along with their existing programs. 2. A Life skills course was taught at David Harps Foundation to a staff of 18 mentors. This organization is a successful community organization helping homeless youth achieve academic success though music education, sound engineering and multimedia production leading to jobs and self sufficiency. A staff member was selected to become the first certified trainer for the Train-the Trainer program. In a short time the trainer began teaching life skills concepts to new transitional youth coming into the organization.. 3.In November we were pleased to have hired Dr. Stephanie Murphy to provide leadership as our new Program Director. Dr. Murphy was formerly director of the learning academy at the San Diego Housing Commission. 4.During the year Life Skill classes continued to be taught at the San Diego Housing Commission. A Zoom class was taught to 28 students enrolled in their Medical Assistant Program providing job opportunities for students. 5. We are starting the new year with a new opportunity to teach our Life Skill classes at the at O'Farrell Charter School for their ARC Program. The proposal to teach 8 lessons to 40 students ages 10-14 starting March 2026

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

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 100
  • Transparency & Controls: 100
  • Sustainability: 25
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -60.3%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.78; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 73.5%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 9.4% per year; rating input score 100; 70th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 4.5% per year; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 14% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $55K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 6 people listed
  • Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 12 filing years from 2014 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 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.

  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 11/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 41/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 1/100.