Shine Your Light Attn Laurie Gardner

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
364814935
IRS 990 coverage
2018–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2015, Form 990-N 2016
Location
Cambria, CA, USA
Phone
5102068438
Rating
82
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Education N.E.C.

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$58,415
Expenses
$64,990
Assets
$4,973
Liabilities
$452

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

Leadership & pay

4 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Laurie Gardner (President/CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • Laurie Gardner (President/CEO): $20,265 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

SYL is an educational nonprofit supporting leadership development and personal growth. We offer coaching, training, and keynote speaking. Our philosophy is "FOR EACH ONE, REACH ONE": Using funds from donations and purchased services, we gift free (Cont. on Schedule O) SYL is an educational nonprofit supporting leadership development and personal growth. We offer coaching, training, and keynote speaking. Our philosophy is "FOR EACH ONE, REACH ONE": Using funds from donations and purchased services, we gift freeor discounted services to those who can't afford them. We passionately believe that everyone, rich or poor, deserves to be the best person and leader they can be.

What it reported doing in 2025

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT COACHING & TRAINING: Shine Your Light offers personal development coaching and training to a diverse group of paying and nonpaying clients, including veterans, low income, and other underserved populations. Our personal growth coaching, training, and keynote presentations help people to live better lives in the four essential areas of work, relationships, health and home. In accordance with our "For each one, reach one" mission, we provided dozens of pro-bono hours and discounted personal development coaching & training services to those who otherwise couldn't afford it.SYL offers Lead Coach and Lead Mentor certification to those completing the Level 3 (advanced) Trust Your Gut master class. The certification program is a multi-month program where apprentices receive small group and individualized mentoring on how to become a Shine Your Light intuitive life coach and master class mentor. Certified Lead Coaches are eligible to coach SYL's clients as part-time contractors. Certified Lead Mentors are eligible to work as part-time contractors to guide master class students in applying the tools they are learning in class.In Addition to our ongoing 1-on-1 personal growth coaching and classes, SYL offered a full weekend retreat in March 2023 focusing on women's wellness.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 72% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 89
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 65
  • Sustainability: 24
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

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

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: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 75%; rating input score 75; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -11.3%; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.08; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.09; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 31.2%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 3.3% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 2.3% per year; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 3.9% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 3 of 4 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $65K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $20K · 4 people listed
  • Consistency: 23 of 23 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 7 filing years from 2018 to 2025
  • 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.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 40/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 9/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 7/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 15/100.