Red Letter Christians
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 461204060
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2015–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2019, Form 990-T 2022
- Location
- Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Phone
- 6102255025
- Rating
- 79
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Religion Related N.E.C.
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $368,751
- Expenses
- $358,402
- Assets
- $260,535
- Liabilities
- $9,006
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- SHANE CLAIBORNE (CO-FOUND/BD): $66,956 total reported compensation
- KRISTEN UTOMO (FINANCE DIRE): $22,047 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Staying true to the foundation of combining jesus and justice, red letter christians mobilizes individuals into a movement of believers who live out jesus' counter-cultural teachings.
What it reported doing in 2024
Program 1: public witness & movement building primary focus: red letter revivals, public vigils, and anti-christian nationalism initiatives in a year marked by significant national division, red letter christians (rlc) successfully mobilized a broad, multi-racial coalition of faith leaders to champion a vision of christianity centered on jesus's teachings of peace and justice. Rlc hosted three 'red letter revivals' in santa ana, ca, philadelphia, pa, and a week-long virtual series. These events reached thousands globally as a direct, non-partisan counter-narrative to christian nationalism. These events were created in collaboration with local advisory councils comprising pastors, activists, and those directly impacted by injustice, ensuring that national movement-building remained rooted in local service. Additionally, rlc led a collaborative good friday vigil and action at lockheed martin in king of prussia in association with the international gaza ceasefire pilgrimage, providing a faithful public witness for peace and calling for an end to the profiteering of war by weapons manufacturers.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 87% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 89% 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 74
- Transparency & Controls: 87
- Accountability: 83
- Sustainability: 37
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 78.6%; rating input score 79
- Program expense ratio: 79.8%; rating input score 80
- Fundraising efficiency: $6.83 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 94.7%; rating input score 95; 55th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 87.5%; rating input score 88; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 2.8%; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.73; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 24.8%; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 8.5% per year; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 8.8% per year; rating input score 100; 69th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 23.6% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 78.6% of revenue deployed · 79.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 7 of 8 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $286K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $67K · 10 people listed
- Consistency: 21 of 22 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 8 filing years from 2015 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 8 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 29/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 46/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 33/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 15/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 35/100.