Shield Down
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 994001564
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2024–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025
- Location
- Mckinney, TX, USA
- Phone
- 9728379462
- Rating
- 34
- Verdict
- REVIEW
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Military, Veterans' Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $13,448
- Expenses
- $15,318
- Assets
- $5,639
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
7 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- John Kelty (CEO, Board Director)
People named in this filing
- John Kelty (CEO, Board Director)
- Andrew Warner (Chairman of the Board of Directors)
- Jeremy Yantes (Board Director)
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
Shield Down's primary exempt purpose is to provide support and education to veterans and dependents of service-members who died in service. We do this by: 1) provide peer-to-peer coaching, guidance, resources, and other support to veterans; 2) provide financial aid and other support to dependents of fallen service-members; and 3) provide community education and engagement.
What it reported doing in 2025
"Provide Financial Aid & other Support to Dependents of Fallen Heroes": In 2025 we were fortunate enough to be able to provide multiple forms of support the dependents of fallen heroes. We coached and provided emotional support to multiple widows of veterans who died by suicide. We provided $1,000 to the R.E.S.P.E.C.T. program through the Hasbrouck Heights VFW Post for their annual wreath campaign to lay Christmas wreaths at the headstones of fallen veterans. We provided $5,000 in financial hardship assistance to the widow of a fallen army veteran.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.
The verdict
REVIEW - The filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 0
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 34
- Growth: 0
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 0%; rating input score 0
- Program expense ratio: 0%; rating input score 0
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -13.9%; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.37; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -200% per year; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -12.3% per year; rating input score 0; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -28.4% per year; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 0% of revenue deployed · 0% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 7 people listed
- Consistency: 8 of 9 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 2 filing years from 2024 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- 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: Mission deployment rate scored 0/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part III transfer expenses within program total did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 26/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 26/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.