Sonlife Classic Nfp

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
363517193
IRS 990 coverage
2019–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Wheaton, IL, USA
Phone
9713404675
Rating
77
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Protestant
Affiliation
Christianity

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$94,279
Expenses
$95,372
Assets
$135,863
Liabilities
$5,455

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

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Steve Hudson (Interim President)

People named in this filing

  • Steve French (Chairman/Secretary)
  • Michael Harder (Asst. Chairman/Treasurer)
  • Steve Hudson (Interim President)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

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

Overview

Mission

Sonlife Classic provides leadership coaching/mentoring, training events for church leaders, and disciple-making resources.

What it reported doing in 2025

In January 2025, Sonlife relaunched the Disciple-Making Conference with near 200 people attending. In June, we trained at two youth evangelism training events in Chicago and Toronto. Throughout the year the team members were faithfully trained and coached around the US and Canada. Team members attended a number of conferences to promote Sonlife's training and coaching. We ended the year with 12 team members dedicated to Sonlife's vision for the next 10 years to train and coach 16k youth ministry groups in the US and Canada.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 65% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
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

SUPPORTED - 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 program spending has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 81
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 76
  • Sustainability: 42
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 85.4%; rating input score 85
  • Program expense ratio: 81.1%; rating input score 81
  • Fundraising efficiency: $13.62 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 59; 59th 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: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 3 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 43
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • 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: -1.2%; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.42; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -31.3% per year; rating input score 0; 11th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -32.6% per year; rating input score 0; 13th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -17.2% per year; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 85.4% of revenue deployed · 81.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 3 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $77K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
  • Consistency: 20 of 20 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 2 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 7 filing years from 2019 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • 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.

  • Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 6 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 59/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 49/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 33/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 18/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 58/100.