R.e.l.a.
Legal name: Rela
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 463847944
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2021
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2021, Form 990-EZ 2014, Form 990-N 2013
- Location
- Somerset, NJ, USA
- Phone
- 732.230.7412 ext. #4
- Rating
- 70
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Religion Related N.E.C.
- Affiliation
- Religious (unspecified)
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $97,309
- Expenses
- $101,123
- Assets
- $0
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2021. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
9 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Shannon Lee (Executive Director)
Highest reported compensation
- Shannon Lee (Executive Director): $23,869 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2021. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
R.E.L.A. is devoted to fostering Christian leadership through resources, community engagement and kingdom fellowship. We create a welcoming environment, sharing newsletters and supporting members in their faith journeys. Our goal is to enhance leadership skills and teach principals to be applied in our everyday lives.
What it reported doing in 2021
Next Gen and Exec Gen are 9 and 10 month leadership programs designed to help young and experienced professionals develop and hone their emotional intelligence to become effective servant leaders. Annual events: Leadership forum is a half day leadership development event concentrating on best practices delivered by engaged and dynamic leaders. Impact Columbus is an inspirational event focusing on leadership in action, with a local speaker who exemplifies servant leadership through work, service and community impact.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 70% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
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: 68
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 69
- Sustainability: 24
- Growth: 0
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 68.5%; rating input score 68
- Program expense ratio: 65.9%; rating input score 66
- Fundraising efficiency: $27.58 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 2 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 25
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -3.9%; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 23.6%; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -120.5% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -1.7% per year; rating input score 0; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -21.3% per year; rating input score 0; 7th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 4 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 68.5% of revenue deployed · 65.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 2 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $67K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $24K · 9 people listed
- Consistency: 22 of 22 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 2 filing years from 2020 to 2021
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- High — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 7 not reported.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 3/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 47/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 12/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.