Red Lightning

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
472559388
IRS 990 coverage
2021–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2015
Location
Mesa, AZ, USA
Phone
8015498990
Rating
73
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Disaster Preparedness and Relief Services

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$469,952
Expenses
$423,169
Assets
$147,212
Liabilities
$70,732

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

Leadership & pay

6 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Michael Shiffler (President and CEO)
  • Jay Shiffler (Vice President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Michael Shiffler (President and CEO): $84,744 total reported compensation
  • Olga Bradley (Secretary): $22,299 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Red Lightning offers a portfolio of scalable medical equity and disaster aid solutions for lower to middle income countries. We do this through partnerships with key organizations and subject matter experts to assess and design solutions for those in need.

What it reported doing in 2025

Red Lightning provided disaster response and recovery services in Hawaii and Jamaica. In Lahaina, Red Lightning completed smoke remediation on seven homes, directly benefiting 32 household members, engaged 50 volunteers for 1,858 volunteer hours, operated the Maui Team House as a volunteer operations and staging center, and began the Limahana volunteer rebuild base-yard project. In Jamaica, Red Lightning deployed more than 60 Starlink units and related solar/battery power support in collaboration with The Salvation Army to support disaster-response connectivity.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 99% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 87% 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 total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 73
  • Transparency & Controls: 79
  • Accountability: 72
  • Sustainability: 35
  • Growth: 80

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 71.4%; rating input score 71
  • Program expense ratio: 79.3%; rating input score 79
  • Fundraising efficiency: $27.39 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 66.7%; rating input score 67; 21st percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • 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: 10%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.35; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.48; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 25.3%; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 27.4% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 14.7% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -16.2% per year; rating input score 0; 4th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 71.4% of revenue deployed · 79.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 4 of 6 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $336K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $85K · 6 people listed
  • Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, and grants
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2021 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
  • 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.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 19/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 56/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 9/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 14/100.